


Tango in the Rain - or how to rediscover yourself

by TomatoFujoshi



Series: Tango fic and it's drabbles [1]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Crossdressing, Genderfluid Character, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-03-21 15:28:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3697448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomatoFujoshi/pseuds/TomatoFujoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all starts with mutual pining, a two week trip all over the world and a bet with an unexpected outcome.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prepare for Takeoff

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doorwaytoparadise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doorwaytoparadise/gifts).



All his restraint went to hell that one rainy summer evening. 

The day begun like most other days.  
Douglas was awoken by his alarm at some godforsaken hour in the morning, he got ready for work, today with the small variation that he had to pack an overnight bag, as they were indulging some rich woman who decided she needed a private jet to take her wherever she wanted in the 2 weeks her husband was on some business trip.  
To save money and time he had now for some weeks suggested to Carolyn he would pick up Martin so she only had to take Arthur with her and for this trip she had finally said yes. 

Douglas liked to see Martins still slightly sleepy demeanor in the morning and to be able to appreciate it in private was a blessing.  
The way his hair wouldn’t be hidden under his hat and often still be a little damp from his morning shower emitting the faint smell of his shampoo that would get less as his hair dried completely.

He looked at the clock in his kitchen.  
5:40am  
They were supposed to be at the airfield at 7am and he didn’t need more than an hour to get there. Seems like he was a bit overeager in getting ready, but that meant he could prepare some sandwiches they could share while doing all the paperwork (meaning he would eat maybe one and give the rest to Martin).

After he finished making the sandwiches Douglas did a quick check of his things again and went out to his car. Martin would appreciate him being early rather than late.  
And in the mood he was as of late he could need a bit of appreciation. No wife/partner, an aging pilot, no one new in sight, and the one he wanted was most likely straight and on his way into a royal family. 

He arrived at Martin’s house 10 minutes before the agreed upon time. So Martin would probably assume he wouldn’t be here for 20 minutes.  
Well time to surprise his captain.  
Douglas picked up his phone and called Martin. The phone rang for a while until Douglas was put through to voicemail. That wouldn’t do any good to leave a message. Knowing Martin his phone was already in his flight bag and if he hadn’t heard it, it would go ignored until he turned it off before the flight.  
He would wait for a few minutes to see if Martin would ring back, if not he would go and ring the doorbell. 

When no call or Martin came after almost 10 minutes Douglas got out of his Lexus and went up to the front door of the student house. He had never before went this close to Martin’s personal life.  
He was relieved to find that Martin had his own doorbell and he wouldn’t have to wake the whole student house on a Saturday.  
He rang and waited for the door to be answered.  
-_-_-

This morning wasn’t in any way going as expected. Not only did he have to go to work with Douglas in his car, also his old and trusted alarm clock decided to die in the night and so he was now late!  
He is the captain he can’t be late!  
Good thing though that is inner alarm woke him at a time he could still get mostly ready on time. 

He had rushed in the shower and only slightly towel dried his hair. There was no time for more throughout drying. Maybe after everything else was ready.  
This one time Martin hoped Douglas was late. He would still tell him how incompetent lateness was but he would secretly be happy. 

Back in his attic-room Martin searched for all the stuff he would need, that was still lying around. He had already packed clothes and triple checked his license at least twice the day before so he didn’t spend time on that, but his phone was still out. It went into his flight bag and the charger went into his overnight bag. He picked up his wallet and put it into his flight bag too.  
Martin then placed both bags on his bed and placed his keys on top so he wouldn’t forget them or forget to lock up.  
All other things looked to be in order.  
So Martin went to the kitchen to get some breakfast, which meant a slice of toast or maybe two. But Martin wasn’t feeling like indulging himself, even though he would be gone for a while so maybe he should eat it so it couldn’t go bad. 

A look into his cupboard revealed that he had a total of zero slices left since the two that where still there had gone bad. Just as well, then no breakfast. At least it was a long flight so there would be lunch and maybe dinner if Carolyn felt generous.  
But there was still a bit of coffee left over so he brewed a cup of the horrible cheap instant stuff, so there would be at least a bit in his stomach and it should also wake him up a bit more. 

Just as he finished stirring his coffee and was about to go back to his room the doorbell rang.  
Figuring it would be faster to just go to the door to see who was there, and safer too as not even the postman would come by this early, he took his cup into hand and went to the door in just a vest and his uniform trousers. He didn’t want to have wrinkles in his shirt after all also his hair would just have dripped all over and he would have had to face Douglas with a partially see through shirt. 

Martin just hoped it wasn’t some stupid joke or once again some drunk student really wanting to ring someone else. It wasn’t even 7 in the morning!  
Opening the front door Martin was shocked to see Douglas, who wore a similar shocked expression, on the other side of the door this early.

“What are you doing here?” Martin blurted, blushing because his FO had just seen him ruffled and half dressed, carrying a chipped mug. In his house.  
-_-_-

Oh God. Why had he thought this was a good idea?  
Martin was wearing only trousers and a vest and his hair was fluffier than ever. The vest did nothing to hide his slight muscles he must have gotten from his van job. To think all this was hidden under Martins baggy uniform or occasional not quite fitting casual clothes.  
“If Sir forgot, I am supposed to be picking you up for work today” Douglas recovered  
“Yes I remember but you are way to early!”  
Douglas looked at his watch “Only about 3 Minutes. Is Sir running late today?”  
“No! Well yes… but I didn’t think you would be here for some minutes…”  
“Well you didn’t pick up your phone, so I rang the doorbell”  
“Well as you see I’m not ready. I’ll be out as soon as I am”  
“I’m hurt. I’m not even getting invited in”  
“Save it Douglas! There’s nothing to see in here and I just need to finish my coffee and finish getting dressed”

Oooooh! Did that mean Martin’s hair would stay like this all day? Douglas wanted to put his hands into this hair. This much natural fluffiness should be illegal.  
But shame that Martin dressing himself would mean his form would be hidden. 

“Ok. I’ll be in my car. Just don’t let me freeze to death” Douglas drawled  
“It’s not that cold that you won’t survive another 10 minutes in your CAR. Put the heating on or something!”

Seems like teasing your captain before he really had his first cup of coffee was not a good idea.  
Douglas went back to the car without another word and Martin shut the door after him. 

While waiting in his car Douglas couldn’t get the image of Martin’s ruffled appearance out of his head. About seeing it every day with less clothes. He normally looked so small and vulnerable but these muscles told Douglas something very different.  
He managed to stop his thoughts drifting of further. Martin would be out any moment now and he didn’t need Martin to ask him why he sat in his car blushing like a school girl or hiding something even more embarrassing.

These were going to be a long two weeks if these thoughts kept popping up.  
-_-_-

He should have thought that with his luck Douglas would choose today to be early.  
And what was up with his shocked expression at the door?  
There was something about the way Douglas had looked at him. Something Martin couldn’t quite place. But shock didn’t really cover it.  
He suddenly looked almost submissive…  
Douglas Richardson and submissive. What a joke.  
Did Douglas know something he thought he had hidden well?

All these thoughts were useless. He should be getting ready or Carolyn would have their heads.  
And this time blaming it on Douglas wouldn’t work. 

He finished dressing himself and checked himself out in the bathroom mirror. He didn’t have time to do much to his hair, his hat’s weight would have to work in his favor this time. But everything else looked presentable.  
So he made one last trip to his room, checking if everything was in order and grabbed his bag, locked up and went downstairs and out the front door to Douglas’ Lexus.


	2. Chapter 2

Why did Douglas look this flustered when Martin got into his car?

It was very likely he himself was looking more disheveled than usual, with the way he had hastily dressed himself.   
Why had he done it?  
They would still be in time even if he had taken the time to get properly dressed. Douglas had been there on time after all and the drive to the airfield at this time of day would only be 15 minutes.  
And it’s not like Douglas could have complained about him taking 5 minutes more

So why?  
And why did he keep looking at Douglas?  
Good thing Douglas was concentrating on the road.  
There had been something he feels for Douglas for some time now. So why was today different? He had always managed to keep control.   
Douglas had been shocked to see him in such state of undress after all.   
There also was the fact that it was most likely Douglas was completely straight anyway!  
But he was quite open about having nothing against homosexuality, and that was something for a man of Douglas’ age? 

Martin had to stop himself on that train of thought.  
No use in getting his hopes up!   
Even if Douglas was interested in men why should he take his stupid, way younger captain? 

Martin didn’t manage to shake off the thoughts completely until Douglas pulled into the airfields car park. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Good Morning Drivers!” was the first thing Martin and Douglas heard when they entered the Portacabin.  
“Good Morning Carolyn!” said the two pilots in unison  
“Where is Arthur?”  
“He’s hoovering the plane as he decided to eat a packet of crisps he found in the galley after he finished cleaning up last time”  
“Ah!”  
“When is the flight scheduled today?”  
“8am I told you! Haven’t you done the flight plan?”  
“I haven’t filed it but it is mostly ready. I just wanted to make sure”  
“Why do I even pay you for being lazy?”  
“You don’t pay me!”  
“Then go to work! We don’t have time to loose and we have to be ready when our client arrives! I’ll go and see what Arthur is doing”

With that Carolyn left the portacabin and Douglas was once again left alone with Martin.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

40 minutes later everything was prepared.   
Arthur had cleaned GERTI nicely.   
Martin had filed the flight plan, and Douglas had been doing the walkround.  
Taking the time to shake the image of Martin’s arms and shoulders without a baggy shirt covering them from his mind.   
The walkround did help a bit, but now that they were sitting together in the flightdeck waiting for Carolyn, Arthur and their client to arrive, it all came crashing back.  
They were taking their time with the customs and boarding process today it seemed. The client had arrived about 15 minutes ago.  
Douglas was left with nothing but his own thoughts while Martin filled out list after list of pre-takeoff checks. Only occasionally asking him to flick a switch or press a button. 

This was torture. Why did his feelings have to push to the surface today? It had started bad but the feelings just made it worse.   
Today started off two weeks of flying all around the world, and, knowing Carolyn, staying in the same room as Martin.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

At long last the passenger was aboard and they were taxiing to the runway.   
Martin started wondering if something was wrong with Douglas. He didn’t even have to remind him that he was not supposed to chat with Karl.   
Douglas had kept the communication to a minimum. It still wasn’t professional but it was short.   
Maybe he just had stuff to think about. He had more of a life than Martin after all.   
Maybe a new girlfriend.   
He really shouldn’t get his hopes up to ever have more than a workspace friendship with the mighty sky god. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was only when Arthur came in with Coffees more than an hour after take-off that either of the pilots realized they hadn’t talked more than necessary. Both had been lost in their thoughts and got knocked out of their thoughts when Arthur asked if they had a game going on.  
Douglas recovered from the realization faster than Martin.

“We were just starting one, weren’t we Captain?”  
“Wa- Ah yes”  
“Yes. I was proposing a game of ‘Twin Cities’”  
“Sounds Brilliant! What are the rules?” Martin was grateful for Arthur asking so he didn’t look completely stupid. The game was should have been proposed before Arthur came in after all.  
“You have to find two cities that have the same name. Different spellings count too, but not adding a word. Also the cities have to be in different countries.”  
“Brilliant! So what do you have already?”  
“Nothing we just started”  
“Well then I’ll let you get to it. I have to get back or mum will kill me.”  
“Thanks for the coffee”

And with that Arthur was gone from the flight deck.

“So…” started Martin after another minute or two of silence “Are we playing this game?”  
“Ah yeah why not…” Douglas was acting funny. No hint of the usual vigor he displayed when he had the chance to best Martin.  
Why had he put up an act for Arthur and now dropped it again in front of Martin?

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Douglas was sure Martin had realized something was off today but he didn’t care. At least he managed to act ‘normal’ in front of Arthur and Carolyn.   
Even a SkyGod was allowed to have a ‘bad day’. This was not what it was but that would be the better excuse. ‘I’m not my SkyGod self today because I’m in love with the captain and also stuff you wouldn’t get’ is not a sentence Douglas would say ever.

“What’s the estimated flight time?” Martin asked, breaking him out of that string of thoughts.  
“Just under an hour” said Douglas just realizing that they, for the first time, had gotten through a long flight with just one word game.   
And even that had been cut short by the fact that neither of the pilots was very talkative that day. The game had only lasted about 10 minutes, each getting one city in until they went back to silence. Sometimes they picked it up again when Arthur or Carolyn came in to serve something or get out of the cabin. Somehow they had managed to decide without words on pretending everything was normal, while both being lost in their own thoughts. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

After landing on the cheapest airport Douglas could find – Carolyn insisted even though their client was paying well – they did the post-landing checks on Auto-Pilot again. By the time they were finished Carolyn and Arthur had gotten their passenger off the plane and presumably towards customs since the luggage was gone when Martin went to the cargo hold to get his own. Douglas following him still unusually silent. 

“So how long is the drive to Manhattan?” Martin tried to get Douglas out of his reverie  
“About an hour and a half? Could be more this time of day”  
“Then we’d better get going before the client realizes we are not in JFK or Newark. Why did you book this one anyway?”  
“Carolyn said to fly as cheap as possible. Also Newark isn’t much closer, Captain”  
“It isn’t?”  
“No.”

Martin was almost startled by the length of the conversation having heard little more than one word answers for 8 hours form his First Officer. 

They found the rest of the crew easily after going through the checks. Their passenger had apparently already left for Manhattan so it was just the four of them left. 

“What happened to our passenger?” Douglas asked  
“Whatever happens to passengers after a flight, they use some kind of transportation to pass the last bit of their journey.” Carolyn answered sarcastically.   
“Ah. Then let’s do the same. It was a long flight”  
“Can I ride in the middle seat?” Arthur piped in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be real plot happening soon!!


	3. Is it a date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is dressing up and food. But is it a date with just that?
> 
> The end of the chapter is dedicated to jay-eagle. please go there for any of your complaints (no don't)
> 
> I also want to thank my writing buddies for helping to dress Douglas for this chapter :D (If I remember correctly: YellowBananaOwl, Madnina and timeladyleo ? (If you are not on this list but helped still: thank you very much)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for any inaccuracies regarding New York/USA (and probably all the places this story will have) I'm from Europe and the only time I remember being in the US once and that was about 10 years ago to New York...  
> So non of the places except the really touristy ones will exist.

After a drive that took them almost 2 hours because of the morning rush hour, the crew of MJN arrived in their little hotel which wasn’t too bad this time around. It wasn’t in Manhattan but who knows what Carolyn might have gotten there. It still was in New York (the city) so Douglas didn’t question Carolyn’s choice to step up their hotel. 

 

As soon as they had finished check in Douglas knew how they had gotten this unexpected step up in accommodation.  
This Hotel offered 3-Bed Rooms so Carolyn only needed to book two rooms. It also meant there would be no fight of who roomed with whom, but rather Carolyn would have her own Room while the rest of the crew had to share the other room. 

How ‘Brilliant’!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Brilliant it’s a sleepover!”  
“Yes Arthur.” Douglas said sighing internally. He was having a bad day already and sharing a room with their over enthusiastic steward for however long their client wanted to stay in this god forsaken city was not a thing he wanted to deal with right now. 

Martin meanwhile was silently sorting his things on the bed that was closest to the door. 

“Douglas, Douglas!” Arthur said bouncing on his feet “Can I have the middle bed? Now that Martin has chosen his bed there’s only two left”  
“Yeah sure” Probably better for Douglas sanity to sleep a bit farther away from his Captain.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Douglas looked at his phone to check the time.  
He had given up on wearing a wrist-watch most of the time when phones started to be able to change their time automatically. Who needed a watch that was always wrong while you were hopping around the world when a phone could do the calculations for you? 

It was shortly after noon.  
The crew had spent the last few ours in their room reading (or in Arthur's case playing games on his phone if his sounds of triumph were anything to go by), but now Douglas was getting hungry their catered ‘lunch’ before the landing had been over 5 hours ago after all. 

“Hey Martin”  
“Mmmh?” Martin said after a moment apparently finishing a sentence of paragraph in his well-worn novel. It seemed Martin had stopped bringing flight manuals to read on trips.  
“Do you want to go out and get some lunch?”  
“What about Arthur?” Martin looked at the steward that seemed to not be aware of his surroundings, earbuds in his ears and concentrated solely on the screen of his phone.  
Douglas wanted to say ‘No we can’t take Arthur on a date’ but then he would have to confess that in asking Martin out for lunch he really wanted to ask him out on a date. So instead he said: “Look how engrossed he is into his game. And also we have to spend another two weeks with Arthur. I think we can take the liberty of letting him get lunch with his mother for some of the time.”  
“Ah yes.” Martin didn’t sound too eager to spend time with Douglas, but Douglas decided to borrow some of Arthur’s optimism and put it down to tiredness and the fact that Martin didn’t have much money and this was New York City.  
“Then let’s get ready, Sir.”

Martin had exchanged the top half of his uniform for a T-Shirt already and hung the rest on a hanger when they had arrived but Douglas had only removed his uniform jacket and tie. So he went to change in the bathroom to change into a more colourful dress shirt and jeans. He knew he looked good in an outfit like that.  
Some people might think he was too old to wear clothes like that, but who was he to reject clothing based on his age. If he looked good in it, he’d wear it. He was wearing slacks and white shirts for his job after all. 

When he came out of the bathroom Martin went in right away; that made Arthur look up from his phone and remove one of his earbuds “Where are you going?”  
“We thought we should look for some lunch”  
“Oh? Is it lunchtime?” Arthur looked at his watch that knowing the steward was still set on British time “Can I come?”  
“Do you want to leave Carolyn to get lunch all on her own?”  
“Oh right! I should go and find her! I can’t leave her to starve because I’m hanging out with you!” And with that Arthur was up from the bed and had his Phone and headphones stowed away in his pockets, so fast it made Douglas wonder if Arthur would develop superspeed if he gave him enough caffeine.  
With just a quick call of “See you, Douglas” he was out of the door.

After around 5 minutes Martin came out of the bathroom, looking very good in Douglas’ eyes. He was wearing washed out jeans and a faded shirt. Douglas knew he could put the fadedness down to Martin’s financial status but if the magazines Helena had left lying around the house were anything to go by it was the newest trend to wear clothes like that. He had never gotten why people would pay hundreds of pounds for ripped and otherwise ‘damaged’ clothes.  
Douglas got up from the chair he had been sitting on “Should we get going then?”  
“Yeah, I just need to get my stuff”  
“Ah, naturally” Douglas said patting his pockets to check for the things he needed. He had his phone, wallet and key. Perfect.  
“Ok I’m ready”  
“Then let’s go!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They walked out of the hotel and into what looked like an industrial area. They’d probably have a hard time finding a place to eat there that was more than a corner bakery or chip shop.  
“I think we should go and find a restaurant somewhere else” said Martin looking suspiciously at the barred windows of a corner shop across the street.  
“Yes. I’ll look up where the next subway station is” Douglas answered getting out his phone to look at a map. The area their hotel was in looked mostly industrial, but still not too bad except for a few barred windows on a few houses. So Douglas hoped there would be some form of public transport near-by.

The map took a while to load but there it was there should be a subway station just around the corner.  
“Ah. We need to go this way.” Douglas said pointing down the road “While I have my phone out do you fancy anything special for a lunch in the big apple?”  
“Nothing too fancy”  
“Naturally.” Douglas answered tapping away on his phone screen. He knew very well Martin didn’t often openly talk about his lack of money, but he was open to accommodate Martin’s needs.  
Maybe pizza would be a good idea. They hadn’t been to Italy lately and it was a reasonable priced filling food.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They walked to the station in silence, while Douglas tried to dig up a place to eat.  
Martin couldn’t help but look at Douglas. He looked very good in that olive green shirt. And together with those jeans… Martin was glad they were walking in silence. Holding a conversation while this distracted would have been hard. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It didn’t take long to reach the station but when they did Douglas had already found a few restaurants that sounded good. He just needed to see which of those they could get to the best from this station.  
And as he suspected there was a map at the station’s entrance. Douglas might be well versed in modern technology but he was still faster at just reading a map instead of typing 3 or 4 addresses into his map app. He had looked up the stations closest to the restaurants so a quick connect the dots on the subway map would do the trick. 

“Where do we have to go?” Martin asked as soon as Douglas was standing in front of the map  
“Mmmh.” Douglas said looking at the map intendedly “Taking this one to there and then changing and then there” Douglas said pointing at the places in the map while talking.  
“Ah. That’s a long way”  
“It is. But look at how far out we are. Carolyn may have found a nice hotel but this means we are out of the way. When I checked online for places to eat there was not much around here.”  
“Yeah I thought so.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They made the journey with a bit of friendly conversation. It took them close to 40 minutes to reach their destination but when they emerged from the underground what they saw looked a lot more like New York City than the area around their hotel did.  
Douglas led Martin to the restaurant from there while Martin gaped at the height of the skyscrapers around them. 

“Has Sir not been to New York before?”  
“No. We never had the money while I was a child and you know full well I don’t have the money on my own now.”  
“Then you really need to see the sights while we are here!” Douglas said seeing the opportunity to spend more time alone with Martin.  
“So you have been before?”  
“Yeah with Helena” It had been the second week of their honeymoon in which was less honeymoon and more Douglas following Helena around 5th Avenue, but Douglas had still managed to get her to see the sights in that week and vowed to not go on a holiday to any of the major fashion cities again if he actually wanted to relax.  
“Ah. I’ll have to see. Who knows how much of our food Carolyn will decide to pay for while we are on standby even if it’s in another country”  
Douglas wanted to offer to pay for the sightseeing right away but he decided against it until after lunch. If Martin was still inclined to spend more time with his first officer after that there would still be time. And Martin would have less time to decline or find a way out of it. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

They reached the restaurant soon enough. It was in a small house wedged between two much bigger houses and looked like it was a homely family owned place. 

When they went inside, Douglas held open the door for Martin, for which Martin thanked him while trying not to blush. Martin was sure Douglas didn’t mean this to be more than a meal with a colleague. He could be professional. 

They were seated by a young waiter whose enthusiasm to talk about the specials they offered reminded Martin of a slightly subdued Arthur at which point he relaxed a bit and thanked the waiter with a little smile when he finally handed over the menus. 

Wow the prices in this restaurant were pretty low. He would be able to afford more than a side dish. It would have been a waste to go to a nice restaurant like this and only eat some chips. 

He looked up from his menu to thank Douglas but he didn’t know how to say: ‘Thank you for choosing a cheap place’ without sounding like a cheap idiot  
Apparently he had been lost in his thoughts in his quest to find a way to express his gratitude, because the next thing he knew was Douglas looking straight into his eyes, saying “Seeing something you like?”

Martin couldn’t fight this blush. His whole body felt hot. “Uh-. Um. Ah- Um...” He had been caught staring at his First Officer. In a dimly lit restaurant. How could he explain this? How did this happen? He would have to find another job.


	4. You are Douglas Richardson for gods sake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome back. 
> 
> Updates will now a bit more regularly (I hope) but certainly more frequent as I did some writing for this for NaNoWriMo. 
> 
> Enjoy :D
> 
>  
> 
> *whispers* Your reactions to this might get you a new chapter faster ;)

Douglas hadn’t expected that kind of reaction from Martin when he caught him staring. He had never seen him this red, and that was saying a lot because Martin really blushed a lot.  
Maybe it had been a bit much for the first attempt at flirting, Martin looked like he was close to a panic attack.   
It didn’t look like he was averse to the concept of flirting with another man; Douglas had caught him staring after all, but he should have known from the atrocious attempts of flirting he had seen from Martin with some of their passengers, that Martin didn’t have a lot of practice in that field.  
He needed to save their lunch from ending in disaster.   
“I think I’m going with the Mediterranean Salad and a Quattro Fromaggi”

It took almost a minute for Martin’s blush to lessen and for him to look more composed. He looked back down on the menu staring at it as if it knew the answer to all his problems “I think I’ll take the one with the mushrooms and the ham…”

“Ah. Great choice.”

As soon as they had put their menus down their waiter was back. “Would you like to order?”   
They placed their order and Douglas ordered apple juice for both of them. At which he saw Martin smile shyly.   
If this was Martin’s first time in New York and he was going to show the city to him there would need to be a toast, and what would be better to toast with than apple juice.

______________

Martin knew what apple juice substituted for Douglas so he couldn’t help but smile at Douglas ordering some for them. 

When they had finished ordering their waiter bounded off and they were once again left alone.

“So you’ve never been to America outside of a job?”   
“No never. It’s a bit hard to leave the continent with a worksman father and 2 siblings…”  
“Ah yes.”  
“And you know how much I’m able to go on vacation now”  
“So take the opportunity of this trip. We don’t have a plan for the next two weeks. We could be on standby anywhere in the world.”  
“Well being a tourist is still expensive even if you don’t have to pay for travel and hotels”  
“There are many things that are free to see, even if you just wander around the fashionable districts and tourist spots”  
“I suppose you are right”  
“So where did you go to on vacations as a child?”  
“The various beaches of Britain, sometimes Spain or something when business was going well”   
“Probably better for a child than the joys of this city anyway”  
“Well a beach trip with your siblings in some little house with 2 bedrooms when you are 16 is not the most fun”  
“Ah yes. Especially with Simon I imagine?”  
“Well he wasn’t too bad when he left me alone about my reading, but you know how teenagers are so us boys and Caitlyn in one room was more of a problem”  
“Oh…”

They talked a bit more about childhood holidays until their food arrived. Douglas even contributed a story or two of what he and his brother got up to in foreign places.

Time flows fast when you do something fun was a saying often used. Right here in this small restaurant it was the truth.   
Both pilots were startled out of their chat by the arrival of food. 

How could it be here already? They only ordered about 5 minutes ago?

Right after the waiter had gone away Douglas raised his glass “To MJN for making this meal possible!”   
“Really?”  
“Yeah. Without MJN we wouldn’t be here, together.”  
“Well I suppose you are right” Martin said blushing slightly “To MJN”  
They clinked their glasses and started to eat. 

“Mmmmmh. This is really good!” Martin said after having chewed the first bite.  
“Yeah it is. You can almost taste the love”   
“Exactly” Martin said, mumbling “Especially if you are only used to airline catering and pasta” afterwards, ashamed of his standard of living in front of Douglas, especially sitting in this nice restaurant.

Martin finished his Pizza first, so he put down his cutlery and looked around the room, his eyes focusing on a drawing of New York’s skyline in the colours of the Italian flag. 

He wanted to see the sights very much. Preferably with Douglas, but the rest of MJN would be fine too.   
But he shouldn’t.   
Two weeks of flying around the world meant 2 weeks of company meals, but it also meant two weeks of no income, while he still had to pay rent.  
Sure there were a lot of things even in New York you could see without paying entrance fees and the likes. But what use would doing touristy things in this city be, if you left out the Statue of Liberty?

Maybe he should ask Carolyn for a raise again? Business didn’t seem to go too bad judging by the increase in time he spent flying a plane lately.   
It wasn’t like he needed a ‘Captain’s salary’ or even a First Officer’s. It would just be nice to have enough money to not have to rely on his van if he wanted to pay for anything.

Maybe if he skipped a few meals after the trip? Or took up extra van jobs? New students should move into the dorms at the agricultural college soon… 

________________

Douglas finished his meal while Martin was lost in thought.

He wondered what Martin was staring at behind his back with such longing in his eyes, there hadn’t been a plane in the room behind him as far as he remembered.  
Douglas looked at Martin for a bit.   
Martin seemed sufficiently distracted by whatever was behind him and he had been staring at Douglas before the meal so it was only fair he should get a good look in while he could.  
Martin’s T-Shirt really showed of his body way more than the baggy uniform Carolyn provided him with. You could almost see the muscles he had.   
Normally he only saw that Martin was too thin, but right now Douglas could see the strength hidden in Martin’s slim body. 

______________________

 

This time Martin snapped out of his thoughts on his own. “Oh you've finished! Sorry for spacing out”  
“What was on your mind? I hope there wasn’t a plane flying this low in this city”  
“Well if there’s a place in the world where anything flies this low it would probably be here, if the news are to be believed”  
“Ah yeah the adventures of the glorious superheroes”  
“Yeah” Martin chuckled. Tony Stark came closest to his childhood dream of becoming an aeroplane than anyone he had heard of ever did, so of course he had followed the news of the Avengers whenever he had the time.   
“So do you want to look at where the world’s smallest manned plane resides?”  
“Don’t you think that would be stalking? Like we would go and stare at their home”  
“If they build a light up tower with a giant sign declaring they live there, they are inviting people to look and also. It’s in the middle of Manhattan. People are wont to walk by”  
“Ah right… I suppose seeing a bit more of New York isn’t too bad and doing something will help with not dozing off”

Shortly after their waiter came over once again “Did you enjoy your meal?”  
“Yes it was very good”  
“Compliments to the chef” Martin and Douglas answered almost in unison.   
“I’ll be sure to tell her” The waiter answered while picking up their dishes. “Would you like anything else?”  
“No thank you”  
“Are you sure? Our strudel is excellent!”  
“Quite sure” Douglas said remembering what had happened the last time someone around them advertised strudel this enthusiastically.   
“Okay. You should come back for some though. Do you want the check then?”  
“Yes please”

The process of paying didn’t take them very long.   
With an enthusiastic “Have a nice day! I hope you will be back” from their waiter they left the restaurant and went out into the rush of a normal afternoon in New York City. 

__________________

Douglas led Martin to the Avengers Tower first.   
He had feared for a short moment that Martin would want to stay to look until Ironman took off, because of the way he had been staring up the building, but instead seeing this landmark had made Martin way more eager to at least explore the free landmarks of this city.   
Douglas still needed to find a way to convince/invite Martin to see the Statue of Liberty but now that Martin didn’t insist on returning to the Hotel at the earliest convenience he would have a bit of time. 

He stopped Martin from going to Times Square right after seeing the Avengers tower by telling him that it would be much nicer if they went a bit later. The billboards in broad daylight were a lot less impressive.   
Instead he led Martin to the shore so they could look out to the bay and see the Statue of Liberty. 

“It seems like such a waste to be this close and not get any closer”  
“Then let’s get closer” Douglas said grabbing Martin’s wrist without thinking about it, trying to pull him towards the closest ferry operator.   
“I can’t.”  
“I’ll pay”  
“You want to pay for me?” Martin stared at him in disbelieve “You try to get money out of me every other occasion!”  
“I do not!”  
“You are constantly attempting to get me to bet you on something!”  
“Okay. I do that. But did I try that now?”  
“No” Martin looked suspiciously at Douglas “But you must have an ulterior motive. You are Douglas Richardson.”  
“Ok I do have one.” Douglas said sighing, belatedly letting go of Martin’s wrist. He fought the urge to cross his arms defensively. How could he do this? He had never felt this nervous at asking a potential partner about a date. He was Douglas Richardson for god's sake.   
What would he do if Martin rejected him? He wouldn’t get a new job anywhere and he couldn’t make Martin leave because of his stupid feelings. That’s why he had never tried a serious relationship with all those stewardesses, the risk was just too high.  
But now he had come so far and he needed to say something, he had promised Martin a motive after all. 

“Umm…”


	5. A bit of liberty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot when I was posting but I want to thank Linguini A LOT for reading through my chapters and helping me with my grammar, spelling and things :D

Martin had to stop himself from fidgeting.  
How was Douglas at a loss of words? Normally when they fought about something he would just get terribly defensive. He had never seen Douglas at a loss of words. What the hell was his motive, if he couldn’t express himself? He had been acting kind of funny all day, too. Was something wrong with Douglas?  
Douglas sighing pulled Martin back to the present he heard him mumbling “Well to hell with it..” and then he said louder “Martin, would you like to go to Liberty Island with me?”

WHAT?!  
What was that?  
Surely Douglas wasn’t asking him out!  
Was he mocking Martin for his way of asking people out? 

It didn’t seem like Douglas had any evil intentions this time.  
Douglas Richardson stuttering had to be a novelty on its own, but paired with this?

Well he didn’t have much to lose and he really wanted to have a bit of a vacation for once, even if it was just with a colleague.

“Yes”

____________

 

Oh god. What had he done. He was going for doing something as friends or colleagues spending time together and definitely not Martin Crieff asking out some pretty lady to Duxford Air Museum…  
But it had come out so he would have to deal with whatever happened now. 

Why was Martin taking so long to answer?  
Douglas had looked down and closed his eyes as soon as he had blurted out the question but now he was looking up again to see Martin’s reaction.  
He was too silent.  
Maybe he had run off already?  
Martin was still standing right where he had been, and he was looking a bit shocked. 

Shit. He had said the wrong thing.  
Did Martin see through his feelings?  
Did he think Douglas was mocking him?  
What could he do to fix this, get out of it sounding like a date proposal without making it worse?

“Yes”

Wow Martin had said yes.  
He did say yes. 

What did that mean? 

He needed to get back to being a Sky-God. No use in continuing to act like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

“Shall we go then?” Douglas said holding out his hand in a gesture meant to say come follow me, but to his surprise Martin blushed and started to tentatively reach out towards Douglas hand with his own.  
However he aborted the gesture after a few seconds, his arm not really reaching out but the intention had been clear.

Huh? 

Instead Martin took a half a step towards Douglas. “Okay.” he said  
Douglas turned around so he, too, was walking in the right direction and Martin fell into step beside him.  
In turning, Douglas had slightly brushed his hand against Martin’s but he kept looking straight ahead in fear of Martin’s reaction.  
Martin kept walking right beside him, almost too close for a walk with a friend.  
Maybe Martin had feelings for him too?  
Probably not.  
He was an old pilot at a small charter firm because no one else would take him with his history, not to mention his three divorces. There was no way a young lad like Martin would be interested in someone like him.

They reached the booth of the ferry agency in just a minutes walk and since there was no queue Douglas went right up to the counter “Two adults please”  
“Do you want to go up the statue too?”  
“Martin?” Douglas asked  
“Nah it’s fine. I see cities from above all the time.”  
“Ok then just the ferry please.””  
“That’ll be 36 dollars please.”  
Douglas paid the fee and thanked the clerk and wished her a nice day, when she handed him the tickets and a leaflet. She returned his parting words with directions on how to board the ferry.  
With that they were off to walk to the gate where the ferry would land in a few minutes. 

“You didn’t need to pay so much money for me!”  
“Well I did” Douglas said shrugging “I wanted to.”  
“Why?”  
“Can’t I want to have company for a bit of sightseeing?”  
“Yeah but why me?”  
“That you are the best company of our company is just one of the reasons.”  
“Really?” Martin asked blushing  
“Yeah.”  
That had Martin smiling. “And what are the others?” he added with a teasing tone.  
“You’ll have to find those out yourself. As supreme commander you should be aware of what’s going on your vessel.”  
“We are not at work though, are we?”  
“No but a good leader should know what’s going on regardless.”

__________________

Douglas seemed to be back to his normal self. So what had that just now been?  
Well he wasn’t completely how he normally was at work. He was a lot more open but his self-assuredness was back.  
He was teasing Martin but it didn’t feel like he wanted to get a rise out of him with that, more like friendly banter.  
He could deal with that. 

Douglas might tease him about being the leader but he was really out of his depth here. No manual covered relations outside of work or with co-workers.  
He never had many friends because who wanted to deal with someone who could only about planes without stuttering? And relationships never went well.  
The few times he actually managed to get a partner they always left as soon as they realised that Martin would never see them as more important than planes, that his dream to become a pilot was just too great.

__________________

 

The rest of the short wait was spent in companionable silence. 

They boarded the ferry and took a seat on the deck. The sky was slightly cloudy but it was still a nice day. 

As soon as they had sat down Douglas opened the leaflet “Ah we can get an audio guide for free and this ferry will also stop at Ellis Island where we can also get off”  
“Ellis Island?”  
“Ah right you’ve never been around much. For some years every immigrant into the US had to go through the checks on that island.”  
“Ah I think I have heard about that before. And what’s on the island now?”  
“There’s a museum there about immigrants”  
“Mmmmhh…”  
“Do you want to see it?”  
“I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

Martin started staring at the Statue of Liberty as it got closer and closer for the rest of the ride.  
Douglas felt very lucky to be able to get this kind of expression on Martin’s face, it was very similar to the way he looked during take-off.  
It wasn’t Arthur or some random passenger that made Martin this happy. It was just him (well granted with the help of a giant green lady but she couldn’t have done this by herself so Douglas felt he had the right to getting more of the credit).

Their arrival on Liberty Island was mostly unremarkable, they left the ferry and went to get their audio guides.  
There was another moments of their hands brushing when Douglas handed Martin his guide; This time Douglas saw Martin’s cheeks reddening slightly. 

__________________

 

Martin was enraptured how big the Statue of Liberty was in real life.  
They walked around side by side while listening to their respective audio guides. When they had almost reached the entrance to the statue itself Martin saw a replica of the torch that was fixed to the statue. 

“Wow this is gigantic! You’d never think it’s this big when you see it on pictures. I knew you could climb up but that it was this big!”  
“Do you want to get a picture with it and the torch?”  
“I didn’t bring a camera and my phone’s camera’s photos are more like pixel art than anything”  
“Well Sir forgot that he was on this excursion with a master of almost everything” Douglas said taking his phone out of his pocket “This takes pretty good pictures”  
“Yeah Ok.” Martin answered “Do you want me to take pictures of you later?”  
“Ah no there’s no need. Except if you want to get into a picture together?”  
“Yeah” Martin blushed once again

Martin stood beside the torch. Douglas knew it was even taller than he was but with Martin beside it he looked comically short.  
“Smile!”  
Martin followed the instruction, inconspicuously trying to look taller, while Douglas took a few pictures so Martin could choose the best one later.  
“In front of Lady Liberty herself now?”  
“If you’d be so kind” Martin said while already moving over to stand in front of it. There was no way Douglas would be able to get a shot of the full statue, not from this close and even if he went further back you wouldn’t be able to see Martin in it anymore. But he could get at least so much of the statue on the picture that it was still obvious Martin had really been there. 

Next Douglas looked around for someone who could take a picture of the two of them. The older lady over there didn’t look like she would be able to take a picture with a modern phone. But there was a couple walking hand in hand coming up to them, so Douglas left Martin for a bit to ask them.

“Excuse me?”  
“Yes?” Said the man looking away from his girlfriend and over at Douglas.  
“Could you take a picture of me and my friend in front of the foot of the statue?”  
“Sure.”  
They walked the few steps over to where Martin was standing. When Douglas had left him standing, posing in the middle of the island he had looked a bit confused but when he came back with the couple in tow realisation dawned on his face. 

“Martin! This man will be so nice and take a picture of both of us”  
“Oh” He looked at the man “Thank you very much”  
“You haven’t seen me take a picture of you so don’t thank me before it. I might be world’s most horrible photographer”  
“True” answered Douglas “Shall we get on with it? I don’t want to keep you all day”  
“Ok. I need your camera though”  
Douglas handed over his phone with the camera app opened “Just press on the camera button and it should take a picture”  
“Sure”  
Douglas went to stand next to Martin and put his arm on his shoulder. It was an innocent enough gesture to be allowed between friends and it would look way less awkward than just standing beside each other in a vacation snapshot.  
He felt Martin twitch slightly but he relaxed fast enough so Douglas didn’t take his hand away.  
The guy had went away a few paces to be able to take a better picture.  
He was holding the phone up already when Douglas looked back at him “Ok now smile” he said.  
Douglas followed the order and a few seconds later the guy walked back towards them.  
“Here I took a few I hope there is a good one”  
“I’m sure there will be. Thank you very much!” Douglas said taking his arm away from Martin’s shoulder to take back his phone.

After the couple was out of earshot Douglas asked “Do you want to see the pictures?”  
“Maybe on the ferry?”  
“Ok. Let’s see what more there is to see on here”

They wandered around the island for a bit and ended their round-trip in the gift shop to give back the audio guides. After handing them over Douglas wandered up and down the aisles leaving Martin behind.  
Martin remained standing around in the front of the shop looking at things but making no move to explore any more.  
Better that way, thought Douglas, that way he could maybe buy a little something Martin could remember the trip by.  
He couldn’t decide what though until he wandered into the aisle with the picture frames. There he found the perfect present to give Martin a print out of one of the pictures in. Other people might think it was a hideous piece but it would be perfect for Martin. On the bottom of the frame it had the obligatory inscription of where it was from, in this case it declared ‘Liberty Island, New York’ in obnoxious letters, but on the top of the frame it had the Statue of Liberty flying like superman.  
Douglas inspected the row of them for the best one and after choosing one went up to the register taking care that Martin wouldn’t see what he was carrying as it was close to the front of the shop.  
He payed, got it wrapped in some paper for safety and went over to Martin right away.


	6. add a bit of rain before stirring throughoutly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU VERY MUCH LINGUINI for checking my spelling, grammar and general stupid mistakes :D *huuuuugs*

“Are you ready to leave?”  
“Yeah.” Martin said staring at the bag Douglas was now carrying. “What did you buy?”  
“Just something for a friend”  
“Ah…” he answered not believing a word. Well if he didn’t know what Douglas got up to now he couldn’t be held accountable. “Should we go and see when the next ferry leaves then?”  
“Yes”

As they wandered back to the dock Martin thought about how casually Douglas had laid his arm around his shoulder.  
He had almost pulled back but that would have been very suspicious and it DID feel very nice. It was warm and comforting.  
Every other time someone had laid his arm around Martin’s shoulders it was never for camaraderie or comfort. That person was either patronising, teasing him about his height or the worst case it lead up to being wrestled into a headlock so the other person could ruffle his hair, often accompanied by some form of verbal teasing.  
But with Douglas it didn’t feel like that. One part of his brain told him that it was only for the sake of the photo, but the rest of his brain screamed at him that there was something more.  
Sure Douglas had been acting a bit differently around him today. He had even paid for Martin to come, but was that reason enough to believe Douglas returned his feelings? Was Douglas even interested in men?  
Every time he had seen Douglas with other men he had acted like a sky-god even more than he normally did nowadays. He had been like that towards Martin in the beginning too, but it had stopped pretty fast and evolved into whatever this was now. Douglas now seemed to be comfortable enough to at least act like he was flirting with him. 

Well as long as he didn’t slip up Martin could have a close friend in Douglas if that was the only thing he was after. He could deal with that. 

__________________________

The ferry was already at the dock when they arrived, so they boarded right away and once again went to sit on the outside. The only open seats were right at the back of the deck.  
They were still making their way over when the ferry jerked forward as the engines started up. 

Walking around with Douglas and being able to see something he never thought he’d get to see up close Martin had almost forgotten his usual luck, but now it caught up with him.  
The deck had been slightly wet where he had stepped and so he slipped when the ferry gave its startup jerk. 

He felt the ground get closer and moved his hands in front of him to catch himself. All his thoughts were gone except ‘You can’t hurt yourself Carolyn would kill you’.  
But the ground never came, instead he felt an arm around his waist as he was pulled back to a warm body.  
He blushed as he felt the warmth of Douglas’ body along all of his back. “T-Thank you”  
“No problem” Douglas answered, his arm still loosely around Martin’s waist.  
Martin turned around moving back a bit so he wouldn’t look straight at Douglas’ chest. Douglas’ arm stayed around Martin’s waist, moving with him.  
“Carolyn would so have killed me if I wasn’t fit to fly” He said looking up into Douglas’ eyes. He had never noticed how brown they were, not just any old brown, it was a mix of different browns but there was almost no other colour in them.  
“That’s for sure.” Douglas said also looking into Martin’s eyes “I’m happy you didn’t get hurt.”Martin had almost never heard Douglas sound this genuine.

He had thought the talk about Carolyn would lessen the awkwardness of the moment but it hadn’t.  
“We should probably sit down before one of us falls again” Martin said getting flustered by the prolonged eye contact and the hand on his waist. 

______________

 

Just when Martin turned to walk the last few steps towards the seats they wanted to take Douglas realised he never stopped touching him after the rescue. Martin hadn’t seemed to mind. He had just blushed but gone on as normal as he could in a situation like that.  
The way Martin’s body had fitted to his when he had pulled Martin back fitted perfectly to his like none of his wives ever had. 

“So shall we stop off at Ellis Island?”  
“I don’t have to if you don’t want to. If it’s a museum I don’t think I’d remember much. It’s been a long day”  
“Yeah right” Douglas said realising his own tiredness. They’d both been up for some time and they had flown a plane for more than half of that time. “Do you want to get back to the hotel then?”  
“Not necessarily. I just don’t think I could deal with an influx of information”  
“Should we go and see Central Park then? It seems like it could be a nice evening, weather wise”  
Martin looked up at the sky which was still only partially cloudy “Sounds great”

With a short stop at Ellis Island to let off some passengers and others to board they made their way back to the shore pretty quickly. When they were getting off the ferry Martin slipped once again on the same puddle that had almost caused his first fall this time Douglas only needed to grab his wrist to keep him upright though.

“Do you need me to hold your hand or are you trying to get Carolyn to kill you?”  
“Ah sorry. Not trying to get killed. My luck just seems to have run out for today”  
“So should I hold your hand?”  
“Ummm…” Martin tried, blushing “I think I can walk without that”  
“So should I let go?” Douglas said nodding to his hand still at Martin’s wrist  
“We should get off” Martin diverted, but when sliding his hand out of Douglas now loosened grasp turned his hand around so his palm slid slowly against Douglas’ for just a second.

When they finally left the ferry the guard was already looking impatient after their conversation had delayed the exchange of passengers.

They walked to the closest subway station side by side by side, even closer than they had previously. Martin had a hard time not just grasping Douglas’ hand when it swished by his, but it felt inappropriate now they were off the ferry.  
What if Douglas was just joking on there?

_________________

Martin was walking impossibly closer to Douglas than he had done before their little excursion but they still weren’t touching, though now he could feel the air moving every time Martin’s hand moved while they walked. 

Just as he had proposed they took the subway up to central park and walked straight into it via the nearest entrance. The air smelled different in there than it did outside where cars were going by all the time. 

“Anything here you want to see?” Douglas asked looking at Martin, who was looking around with big eyes.  
“Wow! I knew there was a park inside New York but I didn’t think it’d be this big”  
“You are surprised by the size of a lot of things today” Douglas refrained from winking at that afraid Martin would take it the wrong way.  
“Yeah well I told you I’d never been outside of Europe on holiday and have you ever seen skyscrapers in Europe?”  
“Well Frankfurt has some pretty impressive ones for a European city, but granted that’s not a location someone would go on holiday to with their kids” Douglas mused “So any places in here you want to see? The zoo? I think they have polar bears. Or maybe the strawberry fields? Or do you just want to walk around?”  
“Walking around sounds nice. I don’t want to go to the zoo. I think I’ve seen enough of polar bears for a lifetime.”  
“Ah yes that was... something”  
“It was incredibly dangerous and you just chased them in the middle of one of your schemes scaring everyone on the plane”  
“But we managed what we were payed for” Douglas shrugged.

______________

 

“Is it getting dark already?” Martin asked.  
They’d been walking around for some time looking at some things or just walking and talking too engrossed in their own little world to notice much else.  
Douglas looked at his phone “It shouldn’t” he then looked up to see if the sky had an answer to the question of why it was this dark. Well it had. The fluffy clouds of before had brewed up into grey and heavy rain clouds. “Damn”  
“What?” Martin asked not having looked up.  
“It looks like there’ll be rain very soon and not just a light summer rain”  
“We’ll be soaked by the time we get back to the hotel won’t we?”  
“Likely. We should try and find cover maybe it’ll lighten up soon so we can get back in relative comfort”

And as if the sky knew exactly what Douglas was thinking the rain started up the heaviness of it rapidly growing.  
“Too late” Martin laughed at the irony of the situation. It was just his luck to drag Douglas down with him.  
“Yeah well. Probably a better water pressure than what the hotel would come up with” Douglas returned.  
Martin was now full on laughing and Douglas soon joined in.  
People around them bustled out of the park or under some of the bigger trees while they still stood in the middle of the walkway laughing. 

Martin didn’t know why but he suddenly got a burst of courage as he watched Douglas laughing. It was the first time Martin had seen him laugh so freely.  
Martin reached out and grabbed one of Douglas’ hands “Douglas” and as soon as Douglas looked at Martin he stepped forward and kissed him.


	7. how to (not) love a plane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is 3k of unbeta'd writing... please point out any blaring mistakes... 
> 
> Now that you have been warned. 0. Enjoy 1. be kind 2. have fun!  
> And also MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers :D (there may be a christmas special coming...)

Wait, what?  
Douglas mind short circuited the moment Martin’s lips touched his own.  
What? 

As suddenly as Martin had started the kiss he pulled back again “Thank you”  
What? Why was Martin thanking him?  
Douglas’ brain took some time to come back on-line because his thoughts kept coming back to the feeling of Martin’s lips on his.  
“What are you thanking me for?” he asked dumbfounded.  
“The lovely day out”  
“You are welcome.” Douglas returned, there was just one question that he needed to ask. He needed to know “Why did you kiss me?”  
“I thought you wanted it too and I wanted it and it seemed right and I thought you were flirting with me sometimes and then you touched me a lot and…”  
Douglas stopped Martin’s ramble with a short kiss “Yeah. I kind of wanted to ask you out but I didn’t know if you even liked me like that.”  
“I do! But I thought you wouldn’t want a relationship with a guy, much less someone like me”  
“Oh god Martin. I thought almost the same, we are a pair aren’t we?”  
“Apparently we are” Martin said winking.  
Douglas groaned.  
“So can I now kiss you whenever I want?” Martin asked bashfully  
“We need to discuss this. But right now: yes.”

Douglas never thought Martin could show this much self confidence outside of the flight deck but after he gave his consent he could see it in Martin’s eyes as he steadily moved to kiss Douglas again. His hands moving up to Douglas shoulders and around his neck, pulling him down a little so he could reach his lips more easily.  
Douglas went willingly and closed his eyes when Martin was only a breath away. 

This might have been their third kiss but it felt like the first. They both pressed their lips together eagerly and after a few seconds Douglas put his hands around Martin’s back to pull him closer. This position was slightly awkward with their height difference, but neither of them cared about that in the moment. 

Douglas pulled back slowly after a minute, remembering where they were but he didn’t let go of Martin “We should go somewhere a bit more dry”  
“Ah. It is getting a bit cold”  
“And a bit wet. Your T-Shirt is almost going see through”  
“Wha-” Martin looked down on himself almost knocking his forehead against Douglas’ nose. “It’s not!”  
“Has to be my imagination then” Douglas said teasingly “Do you want to get back to the hotel or go for a coffee or something?”  
“Hotel sounds nice. I’m tired and a shower would be great too” Martin said reluctantly taking his arms from around Douglas’ neck and sliding his hands down Douglas’s arms as far as they could comfortably go, but as Douglas moved away in that moment Martin ended up with both of Douglas’ hands in his. 

__________________

 

Martin grinned up at Douglas as he let go of his right hand.  
“Let’s go then”  
“Yeah.” Martin answered suddenly remembering what Douglas had said before their kiss “What do you mean we need to talk about kissing?”  
“Well the fact that we work together is just one of the things we need to talk about in terms of boundaries. We need to talk about what we are comfortable with at what times” Douglas said as they started walking to the station.  
“Oh yeah” Martin said contemplating what Douglas had said “I think I’d be fine with a level of public affection like occasional kisses and touching. And you? And what are we going to do about work?”  
Martin was starting to panic slightly. They were co-workers. What would they do? What would Carolyn do? And what about Arthur? Would they accept gay pilots?  
“Ok I agree with you on the affection. We will continue to work professionally aren’t we? Or is Sir planing to join the mile high club?”  
“WHat? NO! I meant about what about Carolyn and Arthur?”  
“I guess Arthur would think it’s ‘brilliant’ but we don’t need to tell them if you don’t want to”  
“I think we should not tell them for a bit except if you want to?”  
“I think I can live without Arthur enthusing about our relationship for a while”  
“Do you really think he would be this accepting of us?”  
“Are you implying Arthur could be homophobic?”  
“I don’t know. So many people are… and even more if you like more than one gender”  
“You are talking about Arthur. But I see your point. I’ve never seen any signs on either Carolyn or Arthur though. I rather suspect that Arthur has no preferences set on gender.”  
“I hope you are right. I really like my job even if I don’t get payed”  
“Have I ever been wrong?”  
“Not usually”  
“See.”  
They had arrived at the subway station and boarded a train that would go directly to the station near their hotel. 

“So you are not straight” Martin asked tentatively once they had sat down in the carriage.  
“Well I think this would already contradict it” Douglas said holding up their hands that hadn’t parted since the park except for the moment it had taken them to get through the ticket gate.  
Martin blushed “Yeah I meant, I’d never guessed it with you having 3 ex-wives and things”  
“It’s always been easier and somehow people expect a man of my age and occupation to be married to the most beautiful women around” Douglas said shrugging “You see how that worked out. I’ve always preferred to date women but it’s not been for lack of attraction. What about you?”  
“For me it’s always been easier to talk to men for me, but I never dated much. Those few times something happened it didn’t go for a long time. Planes were too important.”  
“So are you attracted to planes too?”  
“Douglas! I was being serious! No. I’m not attracted to planes” Martin answered looking away  
“I didn’t want to hurt you” Douglas realised he had hit a sore nerve. Whatever had happened in Martin’s past it seemed like he didn’t have a lot of good experiences with either friends or partners.  
“It’s fine…”

_______________

Martin thought he had been lucky for Douglas to return his feelings but apparently it couldn’t last for even half an hour.  
Just like every partner before Douglas he had implied that Martin would rather date a plane than another human being. It was just his luck.  
Yeah planes were important but he still wanted to date. He just couldn’t take people out on dates and he had spent so long studying to become a pilot that he had time for little else. 

The pause in their conversation stretched for an almost uncomfortably long time but Martin didn’t know how to break it. This was another reason he needed this to be secret for a bit more. Easier to pretend nothing happened if no one knew. 

It was Douglas who broke the silence.  
“So we are not telling Arthur and Carolyn just yet?”  
Martin shook his head, what use was it if Douglas would break up with him before they were back in Fitton.  
“I’m really sorry about the plane comment” Douglas’s apology seemed to be genuine. Maybe there was a chance after all.  
“It’s ok. Just a sore spot I suppose”  
“Okay you need to tell me if I overstep a line. I will do so too. We both have a past the other doesn’t know about” Martin didn’t know how to feel about this. Was it just pity? How could someone like Douglas have problems as stupid as Martin’s?  
“I will. Thank you”  
“No need to thank me it’s common courtesy I believe”  
“It really isn’t. You’d laugh if you knew how often I’ve been asked if I only dated planes or some variation of the question” Martin laughed awkwardly.  
“I wouldn’t. I’ll remember that now. There’s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about a thing”  
“Thank you! I really mean it” Martin said leaning his head on Douglas’ shoulder. Well leaning against it more likely. He was just too short. “Aren’t you cold? Your shoulder is freezing”  
“A bit maybe. It’s not too bad. You being here keeps me warm”  
“You are soppy. These lines don’t work with me”  
“We’ll see about that, won’t we? I rather like to think they already worked and what you get from now on is just added bonus”  
“Shut up” Martin said blushing and trying to hide his face in Douglas’ shoulder. 

________________

It was oddly comfortable to have Martin leaning against his shoulder. Douglas didn’t move for the last twenty minutes of their journey and instead started to lowly hum some tune that was going through his head.  
The warm presence of Martin cancelled out the cold from being soaked through to the skin. Good thing they would stay in New York for a bit he hated packing wet things into his suitcase. They could leave their things out to dry before having to repack them. 

“The next stop is ours” Douglas said, cursing the station for arriving so soon. Martin would have to stop leaning against him and they had to spend the night in a room with Arthur, so no more of this until they had their own room or Arthur went out.  
“Already?”  
“Yeah. Time flies by”  
“It really does” Martin said sitting up straight once again and stretching his arms above his head, it made his T-Shirt ride up a little. Not enough to expose skin but enough to tease. The T-Shirt was slightly longer than it should be on Martin’s frame so the stretching only flashed his worn belt. It would have to ride up just a bit more to actually show skin. Did Martin have freckles on his stomach too?

The train slowed down as it reached their station and the two pilots made their way outside. Still holding hands.  
The station was just as deserted as it had been when they had gone in a few hours before so they continued to walk hand in hand until they had almost reached the exit.  
“I suppose we should stop holding hands before we get to the hotel” Martin said.  
“Yes” Douglas said pulling Martin slightly to the wall on one side of the station.  
“Douglas?”  
“One last time” Douglas said leaning down to kiss Martin. Martin realised what Douglas was about to do and leaned up so they met in the middle, eyes closed.  
It wasn’t a long kiss but both could feel the other’s longing as they parted. Why did it have to be so complicated.  
Douglas found the strength to let go of Martin’s hand as they turned into the street of their hotel. 

_______________

 

They went straight up to the room.  
Just like Douglas thought Arthur was already back and once again engrossed in whatever he was doing on his phone. For Arthur's sake he sincerely hoped it didn't need an Internet connection since this hotel for sure didn't have any wifi. 

“Oh hi! You are back!” Arthur said sitting up on the bed “That was a long lunch. Mum and I have been back for hours. We were afraid you had gotten lost”  
“We thought we'd use the opportunity and see a bit of this magnificent city” Douglas said trying to stop the stewards rant  
“Oooh we could have done that too!”  
“Maybe you'll still have the time tomorrow, as it was the weather wasn't on our side” Martin gestured to his clothes.  
“Oh is it raining?”  
“No Arthur. We decided to go for a swim in the Hudson with our clothes”  
“I wish you'd told me. I love swimming”  
“Next time we'll make sure to invite you, but now we need a shower so we don't catch a cold”  
“Oh yes you can't get ill. We are working”  
“Exactly”

While Douglas had been talking to Arthur Martin had already been gathering his things so Douglas resigned to taking the later shower. It wouldn’t be much of a problem Martin was always quick in the shower. He thought it’s most likely a habit developed from first living with a family of five and then in a shared house. 

Like clockwork Martin came out of the now steaming bathroom exactly 10 minutes later wearing pyjama pants, the T-Shirt he had been wearing before they went out and a towel wrapped around his hair.  
Now that Douglas was allowed to look he couldn’t stop staring at the way Martin’s trousers hung low on his frame.  
He caught himself before he got lost in the staring and grabbed the things he had gotten out of his suitcase and went into the bathroom himself.  
He passed Martin, who was standing awkwardly in the middle room, when he moved into the bathroom. His hand brushed against Martin’s for just a moment and he could see Martin blush as he stepped away towards his bed. 

________________

 

Now after a hot shower Martin started to really feel how tired he was. It wasn’t even 7pm local time but in Fitton it would be close to midnight.  
The excitement of the day dying down really did nothing for him to be able to stay awake. It wasn’t best practice to fall asleep this early if you’d flown across so many time zones but Martin didn’t care for once, who’d care if he’d been awake in the early hours of morning. Right now he felt like he couldn’t stay awake for 10 more minutes. 

Martin had set down his wallet and phone on the nightstand and moved over to the little table in the corner to hang his wet clothes over one of the chairs. He might be almost asleep but he still made sure everything was in order before he went to lie down. He owned little enough as it was, no use losing things to mold at the bottom of his suitcase or on some dirty hotel-room floor. 

Martin was sitting on his bed as he tried to decide if he should try to read a bit more before bed or if he should go to sleep straight away as Douglas came out of the bathroom. His shower had taken longer than Martin’s but it still had been very short for Douglas’ standards. He came out looking at least as tired as Martin was feeling.

“Wow you look tired Douglas. You too, Skip! Is swimming in a river this hard?”  
Not feeling up to explaining to Arthur that they hadn’t been swimming and that it had been a joke Martin answered “Yes it is a lot harder than swimming in a pool”  
“Ah okay. Maybe it’s good that I wasn’t with you then. Do you want to sleep? I don’t need the light in the room. I had a nap earlier so I’m not that tired but you can sleep!”  
“I think that would be a good idea” Douglas interjected “The flying and the swimming…”  
“OK should I turn off the light then?”  
“Not so fast. You are very welcome to, but let us get settled first”  
“Right-o” Arthur said though he was getting up from the bed already.

Martin moved to lie down under the covers right away while Douglas still moved around the room a bit putting things away. Apparently he had put his wet clothes on the towel rack in the bathroom as he didn’t bring them back out with him. 

As Douglas bent down to stow something away in his suitcase Martin got a good look at his behind. It wasn’t too bad even in baggy pyjama pants but Martin really preferred it in those jeans he was wearing earlier.  
He’d never have guessed that Douglas did own clothes like that. But until now he hadn’t often seen him out of uniform either.  
And then the casual shirt…  
This reactions to a clothed Douglas already made Martin wonder what would happen if they got further in their relationship but for now he needed to stop thinking about it and find something a lot less sexy to think about if he wanted to get some sleep.  
They were sharing a room with Arthur for god’s sake and they hadn’t even been together for a whole day, even if Douglas had been the object of his affections and fantasies for some time he needed to stop thinking about his body for now. 

Martin turned towards the wall as Douglas turned around so he wouldn’t be able to read any of the thoughts he had had on his face and closed his eyes. After less than a minute Douglas gave his consent to the lights being turned out, so Arthur moved over to the light-switch by the door and the room went dark.  
He could hear Arthur mumbling something as he moved back to his own bed but couldn’t make out what it was until he was walking between their beds. “Here I am don’t tread on me, here I am don’t tread on me”  
It seemed to be Arthur’s default song for people moving in the dark even though the only obstacle between the door and his bed was the corner of Martin’s bed. 

Like he had predicted Martin fell asleep within minutes of settling down on the bed. His dreams were fuzzy but gave off a general sense of warmth and comfort. It felt like a mental hug.


	8. Carolyn is doing what???

“Chaps! Chaps! Wake up. Mum told me to wake you!”  
“Where are we flying now?” Douglas grumbled sleepily.  
“No flying. I think. She said something about breakfast”  
Oh god. What could she want now that she was telling them to wake up for a company breakfast? What time was it anyway? Douglas reached out for his phone on the nightstand to check the time. 7am. Really what could Carolyn want this early? Wasn’t one job at a time enough?  
It didn’t take long for Douglas to fully wake up, well at least as fully as he could before having a cup of coffee. So he sat up and started preparing for the day.

____________________

“...wake you!” A loud voice penetrated the pleasant sleepy haze in Martin’s brain. It was followed by a undecipherable grumble that threatened to put Martin back to sleep in it’s pleasantness.   
“No flying. I think She said something about breakfast” Oh the loud voice was back. Maybe he really should wake up.  
Martin slowly opened his eyes to see who was speaking.   
Usually he wasn’t this disoriented when waking up, but somehow the pleasant dreams had him in their grip.  
What he saw woke him up faster, it was Arthur in brightly coloured pyjamas with polar bears all over.   
Oh yeah they were sharing. How could he have forgotten?  
“Oh you are both awake. Good. Don’t fall asleep again I’ll go get ready” Arthur said vanishing into the bathroom. 

“What’s going on?” Martin mumbled at Douglas who had pulled his suitcase onto the bed and was rummaging through it.   
“Carolyn called to breakfast”  
“Really?”   
“According to Arthur yes. This early I fear for the worst”  
“Mmmmmmh” Martin rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”  
“7am”  
“That is early.”

Martin decided to use the time he had to wait while the bathroom was occupied checking on the clothes he had hung to dry yesterday. He shuffled across the room to feel if they were still damp.   
The t-shirt was dry already but his jeans were still damp at the edges.   
Urg, his uniform trousers would have to do for breakfast. He did have another pair with him but he wanted to keep that as back-up, and the jeans should be dry soon enough. No need in possibly dirtying the others on the first days.

Just as he was turning around to find stuff to wear in his suitcase he tripped over his own feet.   
He falling a lot in front of Douglas lately. Some more and he would think Martin was incapable of walking on his own.   
His thoughts didn’t even go to the possibility of injury. He just feared his boyfriend ridiculing him.   
Wow. His boyfriend. It sounded pretty cool in his head.

The fall ended a lot softer than he had imagined. He still face planted onto something but it sure wasn’t the ground. What was it?  
Right Douglas’ bed was right next to the table; and he had fallen onto Douglas’ lap. 

Nice one Martin. Not only was this his third stumble in less than 24 hours and Douglas had saved him for all of them but now he had actually fallen onto him. 

“Are you alright?”  
“Yeah. Sorry. I don’t know why I keep stumbling…”  
“It’s no problem” Douglas said smiling “I’ll just make it my job to catch you”  
“I don’t want to be a bother” Martin said slowly, reluctantly trying to get up. It was really nice here. Where did that come from how asleep was he still?  
“It’s no bother. Gives me an excuse to touch you doesn’t it?” Douglas said his voice getting lower for the last part and Martin felt his face getting hot. “Though I would much prefer to see more than your back” Douglas said placing a hand on Martin’s back.   
“But the others…” Martin attempted to change the topic away from the flirting.  
“Which others? Arthur is still in the shower and even Carolyn wouldn’t dare to barge in unannounced while we are getting dressed.” Douglas said stroking Martin’s back lightly.  
“Oh yeah…” Martin said now moving to get up with more purpose. Douglas hand felt very nice on his back but if they were doing this he wanted to have a more active part in it. 

They’d just have to listen for the shower stop. It would be simple. Wouldn’t it?

“Leaving already?” Douglas said probably going for some kind of sarcasm but Martin could hear the underlying sadness. So Douglas liked touching him as much as he did?  
Instead of verbally answering Martin moved so he was sitting beside Douglas and moved to hug him. The position was awkward but sitting on Douglas lap felt like a too big step.   
“Oh” Was all Douglas said as he turned around to better return the hug.   
Martin buried his head in Douglas’ shoulder as Douglas leaned his head to the side of Martin’s. 

Martin never wanted to let go again, but he knew this couldn’t last, Arthur would finish his shower soon. 

After a minute or two he felt Douglas head moving away from his and he listened if he had missed the water shutting off but it was still running so he made a questioning noise to find out why Douglas was moving away.

“Martin look at me” Martin didn’t want to. This might be the last chance at touching for the whole day. 

______________________

 

Douglas had thought Martin’s antics on the way back were cute, but this was a different level.  
He couldn’t believe how cute Martin could be now that he didn’t try to assert his superiority.   
Oh how Douglas wanted to just hug him for the rest of his life but there was another thing he wanted to do even more in this moment. Something he needed to do. But Martin wasn’t cooperating he was instead clinging even tighter to him. 

It seemed like Douglas needed to use a bit more force than words. He moved his arm away from Martin’s back so he could move Martin’s head up. With a bit of persuasion Martin went willingly though he still clung to Douglas as tightly as he could.

He really needed to catch Martin sleepy more often. Hopefully there would be a lot of chances for that in the future but back to the task at hand.

The hand he had used to coax Martin up moved to Martin’s cheek and he moved in to kiss Martin.   
Martin apparently agreed with this change of events after all as he tilted his head more to give the kiss a better angle.  
Martin’s arms who had been around his neck as close as possible started to loosen and one of his hands stroked along the back of his neck and into his hair while the other mostly stayed still on Douglas’ shoulder blade as if to anchor Martin in the moment.   
Feeling more adventurous with Martin’s silent encouragement Douglas slid the hand resting on Martin’s cheek back into his locks too.

They were sleep mussed and a bit tangled. Douglas was carefully moved his fingers in Martin’s hair, not wanting to hurt him.   
His other hand resumed the slight stroking movements it had started on Martin’s back earlier. 

Douglas wanted to deepen the kiss just as there was a sudden lack of sound in the room. Somehow it seemed important but Douglas couldn’t remember why.  
But Martin was pulling back from the kiss and even moving his arms away from Douglas.   
“The water has stopped” Martin said breathlessly but still more in control of the situation than Douglas felt. 

Then it hit him.  
They weren’t alone Arthur was in the shower and could now be out of the bathroom any moment.  
Martin moved in and kissed his cheek but stood up right away after that, moving back to his side of the room. 

Douglas was still sitting on his bed dumbfounded when Arthur came out of the bathroom a slight skip in his step. It was way too early in the morning to be this chipper but it was Arthur.   
Martin being efficient as ever had managed to already gather his things and went into the bathroom. 

“You look a bit out of it Douglas. Are you getting a cold?”  
“No. I just need a coffee” Douglas recovered from his stunned state.  
“I can’t make you one right now but I’m sure there will be some at breakfast!”   
“Right. You really don’t know why Carolyn is gathering us for breakfast this early?”  
“No but isn’t it nice? All of us sitting together for a meal”  
“We do that on almost every overnight trip where Carolyn decides to actually pay for her pilots’ food”  
“Yes but it’s still brilliant, isn’t it?”  
“Well it can be nice”   
Douglas remembered the cheery dinners they had had around the world mostly due to Arthur, but they were a lot nicer than some of the meals he remembered having with his wives. They had just been sitting there reading papers or chatting at him about fashion or other kinds of gossip he wasn’t in the least interested in.

He still felt a bit of dread at the suddenness of Carolyn calling them down for the meal, but it could be really nice to have people to eat with he liked. He ate alone too often nowadays. 

_________________

 

When Martin came out of the bathroom Douglas was still sitting on his bed and he realised the hair on the back of Douglas’ head was a lot more mussed than normal.   
He hid his blush at that by turning away from the room and folding his pyjamas. He didn’t care if Douglas would make fun of him for it. But he couldn’t face the others right now. Arthur had proven to be a lot more deceptive than a normal person at the worst of times and seeing him blush while looking at Douglas hair could very well be a situation like that. 

By the time he had his blush under control and turned around Douglas had already vanished into the bathroom. 

“When is breakfast going to be?”  
“Oh mum said I should tell her when you were ready but also to rush you if you were dallying”  
“Why the rush?”  
“Maybe she is just hungry. But why do you and Douglas keep asking me things like that; as if breakfast is a bad thing. It’s my favourite meal and also the most important one of the day.”  
“Yeah it is important but it’s also unusual for Carolyn to pay for breakfast for Douglas and me. So why is it your favourite meal?”  
“Because I can make a lot of tea and coffee then and also I really love Coco Pops. Mum said I’m only allowed them for breakfast” Martin wondered what had occurred to make Carolyn ban cereal outside of breakfast times.   
“Did she say where we are going to eat breakfast?”  
“I think this hotel offers breakfast, there was a sign.”  
“Oh” Martin checked his phone for any new messages. He usually didn’t get any but now and then clients would call while he was on a trip and even more rare where the calls or messages from his family especially this far away from Christmas and without any birthdays coming up.   
He usually called his mum at least once a month but she never called because she didn’t want to bother him. There weren’t any messages so Martin put his phone and wallet into his pockets, even if they served breakfast in this hotel who knew what would happen afterwards. 

Douglas came out of the bathroom a little while later. Arthur was on his phone again. He seemed a bit addicted to whatever he was doing on there, and Martin was reorganising his suitcase in lieu of something better to do.   
“Oh you are almost ready!” Arthur exclaimed “I will tell mum you are ready right away” Arthur tapped on his phone for a bit and held it up to his ear.  
“Hi mum it’s me!”  
“Yes they are awake and almost ready”  
“Right-o. I’ll tell them.”   
“Bye” Taking his phone away from his ear Arthur looked at Martin. “Mum says she will meet us downstairs in 5 minutes”  
“I just need to get my things together” Douglas stopped Arthur who was already halfway to the door.   
“Ah then I’ll wait”  
“And I’m ready”  
“Wow that was fast”   
“Well grabbing two items from my nightstand isn’t going to take a long time.”

_____________

 

Even though he suspected that there wasn’t any room service in this hotel Douglas still put the ‘don’t disturb’ sign on the door. No use in someone going in there when all the towels were still hanging on racks, he also didn’t trust the staff at whatever hotel Carolyn put them in. 

They walked down to the lobby in relative silence, as silent as a group of 3 men one of whom was Arthur could be, and were met with Carolyn already waiting for them downstairs.  
“Good morning Carolyn! What a nice day”  
“Shut up Douglas! Arthur, follow the signs and get us a table I need to talk to these two alone first”


	9. One sided conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is unbetaed... because I wanted to get it out there... soooo I hope there aren't too many stupid mistakes and this makes a little bit of sense...

What could Carolyn possibly want. They had parked Gerti in the cheapest feasible hangar and she still had all the parts she had had in Fitton.   
“Right-o” Arthur said skipping off to where the signs declaring ‘breakfast’ were pointing. Hopefully he would find the breakfast room and not get lost like he did so often with even the clearest possible instructions. 

As soon as Arthur was out of sight and earshot Carolyn cleared her throat. Care to explain to me what happened yesterday? You tell Arthur you are off to lunch and vanish until the evening without a word?”  
“I did have my phone with me at all times. And I know for a fact that it does have reception in any civilised part of the world. If something had happened you could have reached me or I you.” Douglas answered, throwing in as much snark as he dared.  
“What if the client had called that she had enough of this god forsaken place?”  
“W-We couldn’t have flown her anywhere. It would have been illegal.” Martin threw in, brave in face of a breach of regulations. 

It was a relieve that all Carolyn was annoyed at apparently was the fact that they spend a long lunch break exploring the city. Douglas really hoped she would be in a better mood the day they told her about their relationship.  
He had seen Martin visibly tense at Carolyn’s first sentence, but relax slightly when he could rely on his CAA regulations again.

“The client booked herself a private plane for 2 weeks. She expects it to be ready at her convenience. This isn’t a fun holiday for the two of you. We are on standby until we land in Fitton again or until the two weeks end. Do you understand?”  
“For once I agree with Martin about the regulations. We were in no state to fly yesterday afternoon”   
“I can’t do anything about yesterday but be warned for the future. At least tell me where you are going. Do you know how often Arthur knocked on my door telling me you still weren’t back?”   
“Sorry” Martin said.   
“You better are. Now. Breakfast.”  
Part of Carolyn’s rant might have been about their client, but in the end Douglas had a glance at the concern she had for both her pilots. 

Douglas and Martin followed Carolyn down the hall towards the breakfast hall. It was straight down the hall even Arthur couldn’t have missed it.   
At least Douglas hoped so. ‘Hunt the steward’ was never fun in a hotel of any size and this was one of the bigger ones they usually stayed at.   
To everyone’s relief Arthur was sitting at a table close to the small breakfast bar waving enthusiastically. “Over here chaps”  
“We can see you very well, Arthur the room is almost empty and you are not the smallest person” Carolyn stopped further exclamations about his whereabouts.  
“Oh yes” Arthur said taking down his arm.

Breakfast was a mostly peaceful affair after that. The coffee was decent, the choices in breakfast food small but of good quality and, which Arthur was very enthusiastic about, they served Coco Pops.

__________________

 

“What’s so special about Coco Pops?” Martin wondered after having mostly finished eating breakfast while Arthur was eating his third bowl of the cereal (or was it the fourth?) at an alarming speed.   
“Dsey-” Arthur started.  
“Arthur. Chewing and swallowing first. It’s impolite to talk with your mouth full” Carolyn reprimanded him.  
After chewing the steward tried again “They are Brilliant! I saw this brilliant ad about them so I had to try them and they are the best cereal ever! They are small and chocolatey and they have this brilliant monkey on the package”  
“So that’s all it takes to be the best? A good package and a good advertisement of it’s features?” Douglas interjected with an undertone that was hard to decipher, but it had Martin fight a rising blush nonetheless.   
“Sometimes. Though there are some things that have brilliant ads and then you try them and they are eeeewwww.”  
“Then I retract my earlier statement” Douglas said turning his attentions away from the steward and to Carolyn “Are there any plans for today?”   
“No the client hasn’t called or really indicated where to and when she needs our services next”  
“So we have a day off but can’t do anything?”  
“Not until we have word that we aren’t flying today.”  
Both Martin and Douglas groaned.   
“Mum, we forgot to bring games from the games cupboard!” Arthur said shocked, it appeared he was finally finished eating cereal “We can only play charades this way!”  
“No. We are not going to play charades. We will hope our client will tell us her plans soon and I will be doing some paperwork and the three of you will find a way to entertain yourselves without me.”  
“We can play charades with three people!”

______________________

 

They ended breakfast with Martin trying to get Arthur of the track of trying to play charades and Douglas arguing with Carolyn about the virtual house arrest she had put them on.  
She didn’t relent so they went back to their room where Martin lied back down on his bed and started to read the book he brought.   
Douglas supposed he should do the same.   
Arthur had finally stopped complaining about the lack of charades and was back to his phone games. 

It took only an hour or two for Douglas to get bored of this arrangement.   
Well less bored and more utterly dissatisfied with the fact that he had to spend a whole, sunny, day locked inside a hotel room with no TV.   
A room also occupied by Arthur and Martin. Martin alone he could have taken, but with Arthur between them it was hell. He wanted to explore more of Martin, get to know more of his likes and dislikes. Things that had previously been private between colleagues.   
But as it was they were trapped like that. 

It took another while for an idea to grow in Douglas’ mind.   
He had Martin’s phone number for emergencies and hadn’t made use of it until now but this was an emergency. He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened a new message. Now that he had the idea he had no idea what to write. 

He started a message a few times with different greetings but it all felt wrong. Too formal to write some form of ‘Hi Martin it’s me’ when they were in the same room.

He looked over to Martin for inspiration and he found it immediately.   
While reading Martin had apparently moved around enough for his shirt to move up a bit revealing a small sliver of skin,more than that it revealed was the top of Martin’s boxers.  
‘I see Sir likes the skies so much he wears them occasionally’ He hit send before he could regret his decision and go for another message.  
A few seconds later a ringtone sounded from Martin’s direction drowned out by a shriek from Martin, surprised by the vibrations.   
Douglas watched with amusement as Martin fumbled to get the phone out of his pocket, book still in hand.  
Martin finally got his phone out of his pocket and frowned at it. He then looked up at Douglas who was blankly staring back, only to look back down and apparently only then opening the message because a few seconds later a furious blush turned up on his cheeks while he pulled down his shirt as far as it would go.  
Martin had discarded his phone beside himself on the bed and just continued reading the book. That was a nice reaction but Douglas rather hoped for more, well there was a lot of time left in the day. 

‘You react so easily. Your partners must have loved it’  
That message just got him a scowl from Martin so no good.

‘Do you have freckles all over?’  
This had Martin blushing again so he took it as a yes.   
Wow he couldn’t wait to get to explore them. Martin had never once even made an attempt at answering the texts, Douglas suspected he simply couldn’t due to the cost of a text message.   
This was better than he thought.

‘Do you think I could kiss all of them in one night?’  
Martin’s blush from the last message had just slightly gone away before this one but it didn’t get deeper again, he now looked slightly scandalised over at Douglas. This seemed to be going well in Douglas’ eyes. He really wanted a verbal reaction from Martin but this would have to do for now. 

‘Your hair is surprisingly soft’  
Well this was getting sappy now but he didn’t care. It felt right to word those things this way, he wasn’t sure he could ever voice those thoughts otherwise and it felt very wrong to drag this conversation to more intimate fields this early. 

‘Felt so nice between my fingers earlier’  
Apparently Martin decided to ignore him now but he was still reading the messages and blushing. He couldn’t stop now. This didn’t feel like a cure for boredom anymore but a thing he needed to do, which just had the side effect of stopping his boredom.

‘And your soft skin’

‘Your lips feel divine’

Martin had turned off the sound on his phone after the second message but now a shrill ring sounded through the room and it wasn’t Douglas’ phone either.  
Arthur sat up startled and picked up the call.  
“Hi Mum!”  
The room was completely silent so Douglas could hear the muffled replies from the other end “Arthur, are you busy?”  
“No, I don’t know why no one wants to play charades but they don’t so -”  
“Good, then go to the corner shop across the street and get us all something to drink.”  
“Okay”  
“No pineapple juice or anything! Just water.”  
“But mum…”  
“No.”  
“Okay…”  
“See if they have sandwiches. You can bring some of those then”  
“Will do”   
Apparently Carolyn had hung up right after that because Douglas couldn’t hear an answer from the phone and Arthur pulled it from his ear. 

“Mum send me to buy some water and sandwiches. Do you want anything else”  
“No thank you” Martin answered curtly, distracted by something, Douglas guessed the story he was reading if the staring at it was anything to go by.   
“No I think your mum’s shopping list is a good one.”  
“Okay. See you later then” Arthur said leaving the room. 

Not even a blink of an eye after the door had been shut Martin was standing at the foot of Douglas’ bed looking bigger than he ever had. It was almost terrifying how different he looked in that moment compared to his normal flustered self.


	10. sandwich criteria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another unbeta'd chapter.... I forgot that I wanted to post this today, so it is a bit rushed... I had to tweak my schedule a bit because of a big upcoming trip :D
> 
> Please enjoy :D 
> 
>  
> 
> (and maybe leave a comment :D)

“Douglas! What were those messages?”  
Douglas swallowed heavily at the tone of Martin’s voice “The truth”  
“You knew I couldn’t answer, didn’t you?”  
“I might not have realised it until later.”

Martin had steadily been moving towards the head of the bed where Douglas was sitting and now slightly leaned down pulling Douglas towards him by the front of his shirt. Smashing his lips to Douglas’.   
It almost hurt, but Douglas’ thoughts didn’t go much farther than ‘yes’ and ‘wow’.   
Martin had proven to be authoritative at the most random times but this was a really pleasant surprise. Douglas didn’t have any problem at being in the lead in any situation but if control was taken out of his hands in this way he was more than willing to give it up. 

Despite the force the kiss remained short and chaste. Douglas didn’t even have time to react to it before it had ended though Martin’s hand remained fisted in the front of his shirt.

“You promised you wouldn’t tell the others when I’m not ready. What if Arthur had seen?”  
“He didn’t did he?”  
“No but you need stop doing things like that. Not when I can’t do anything about it” With that last sentence Martin started looking even more dissatisfied than before.  
“This isn’t about Arthur seeing your reactions is it?” Douglas smirked.  
“Don’t change the topic!”  
“I’m not. You liked the messages didn’t you? You wanted to do that the whole time, didn’t you?” Douglas said putting his hand on top of Martin’s clenched one.   
“Yeah…” Martin said all authority bleeding out of his frame as his hand loosened and he more fell than sat on the side of Douglas’ bed.  
“No need to feel ashamed. Come here” Douglas said coaxing Martin closer so he could press another, softer, but just as short kiss to his lips. “It’s fine”  
“You weren’t weird out just now?”  
“By what?”  
“Me just now. I couldn’t stop myself”  
“No. I won’t stop you if the urge hits again” Douglas said with a wink.  
Martin’s eyes widened “Really?”  
“Really”  
“You liked that?”  
“As long as you don’t knock out my teeth” Douglas said feeling a light soreness on his upper lip where it had slammed against his teeth.  
“Really?”  
“Have you swallowed a parrot? Yes, really.”  
“Wow.” Martin breathed, like he had held his breath since he had brought up the topic of his assertiveness.  
“I could say the same. Didn’t think Sir would have it in him”  
“Ah… Well…” Martin blushed.  
“So this isn’t a new development?”  
“No…” Martin murmured “I never thought you’d like it though”  
“Aren’t we full of surprises…” Douglas smiled.  
“Yeah” Martin chuckled “So you really don’t mind if I’m a bit bossy sometimes?”  
“No I don’t mind, if anything I’ll look forward to it. Not many people know this. When people look for a Sky-God they aren’t looking for someone to boss around.”  
“Ah yeah I can guess. All the people I dated before didn’t really like it. They thought if I was shy they could boss me around instead. It wasn’t bad but not having to hide it is better.”  
“Well you don’t have to stop yourself with me. It’s a nice change of pace”  
“Thank you” Martin said kissing Douglas once again.   
It was a soft kiss but it lasted for a long time.

Douglas reluctantly pulled back “We need to stop. Even Arthur can’t take much longer to do the shopping”  
“Right, yes” Martin said making no move to get up from Douglas bed.

_________________

Martin had thought Douglas would reprimand him for his suddenly dominant act, like he usually would in the flight-deck. Get defensive when his experience or dominance were threatened.   
But he hadn’t, he had even given Martin permission for a repeat performance.   
He still didn’t really know why his reaction to Douglas teasing had been to show his dominance, but he now liked that outcome. 

Douglas had reminded him that Arthur would be back soon. This time they wouldn’t have a warning that he would soon re-enter. Only the key in the lock and that would give them only a few seconds.   
But Martin couldn’t move away from Douglas bed just yet. It felt wrong, like wasting the little time they had to be close.

Luckily Martin remembered that his jeans were still drying on the chair right by Douglas’ bed. He could use that as an excuse why he was on this side of the room. 

Martin moved the hand that was still loosely grabbing the front of Douglas’ shirt to follow Douglas’ hand, which had fallen away from atop his own, until he was holding Douglas’ hand. 

“Martin?”  
“Yes” He looked up from their hands into Douglas’ eyes  
“I really think you should move if you don’t want Arthur to see us, as nice as this is, you can’t be on the other end of the room in the time he needs to unlock the door”  
“For once I’m the pilot with the plan” Martin grinned.  
“Ah, and what cunning plan did Sir work out?”  
Martin pointed behind himself with his free hand “My jeans are still right there from yesterday”  
“Nice, scheme. You are learning.”  
“Well it’s more of a lucky occurrence but thank you”  
“So you say you didn’t leave your clothing at my place on purpose?” Douglas said faking a pout.  
“Pouting really doesn’t suit you” Martin said very amused at Douglas trying to put on puppy dog eyes.  
“Not? Well I guess I’m too old for that” Douglas said still not losing the face.  
“It’s not that it just looks very funny” Martin said answering, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice.  
Douglas joined in on the laughter “Well good thing I usually don’t try this then”

It took them some time to calm down from the laughter, but Arthur still wasn’t back when they managed, so they sat together in comfortable silence. Just holding hands, Douglas thumb stroking over the back of Martin’s hand, coaxing Martin’s to do the same.  
Both looking at each other, taking the opportunity now that it was allowed.

Martin noticed the laugh lines around Douglas eyes, the lines of worry on his forehead. Looking down to Douglas chest though he noticed how wrinkled his shirt was where he had held on to it.   
Martin reached out with his free hand to try and flatten the shirt, embarrassed at having left such a clear sign of what they were doing on Douglas.   
“I thought Sir had agreed to stop the indecent behaviour for now” Douglas said sounding amused.  
“I have. And I am. The front of your shirt is just really wrinkled”  
“I don’t think stroking my chest will help with that”  
“It’s worth a try.” Martin said continuing his stroking “See it’s already less”  
“You know, you don’t need any excuses to touch me but it might be wise to stop”  
Martin took away his hand at that. 

Less than a minute after that Arthur came back into the room several bags hanging from his arms.   
Martin jumped up from the bed.  
Douglas held onto Martin’s hand a bit too long, so he had to straighten his sitting position from the pull.   
Martin collected his jeans as fast as he could and went back to the other side of the room to put them away. 

“Hi chaps!”Arthur said depositing the bags onto his bed “I couldn’t choose which sandwiches to get so there’s a lot. And also water. I’m going to bring Mum some of those things, feel free to take whatever you want” he rummaged through the bags repacking some things, and out of the door the whirlwind that was Arthur Shappey went. 

“Well, that was a short visit” Douglas said standing up to look at what Arthur had gotten them for lunch.   
“Carolyn will send him back soon enough. She won’t tolerate him for long if she’s really doing paperwork”  
“Always the voice of reason, Captain Crieff, and the things I thought we could get up to in the temporary absence of Arthur”  
“I didn’t think we’d get up to anything” Martin almost stammered.  
“You know my reputation” Douglas shrugged “Seducing flight crews left and right”  
“Don’t start anything you can’t finish” Martin said gaining confidence again and finally looking at the offerings on Arthur’s bed too.  
“There are a lot of things I can finish in under five minutes” Douglas said dismissively, suspiciously eyeing a tuna sandwich “Do you think they serve carp in the suburbs of New York?”  
“Let’s hope not” Martin answered sorting through two more fish sandwiches before settling on something with turkey which was more likely to be free of salmonella than anything with fish, that could be brought shop Carolyn would pay for. 

___________________________

Douglas too went for a choice without any sea creatures in it, they both grabbed a bottle of water and resettled at the little table.   
They sat down across from each other and Douglas stretched his legs out under the table, touching Martin’s leg with his stockinged feet.   
Martin’s leg twitched but he didn’t move away “Is that one of your five minute things? Playing footsie under the table?”  
“I don’t think I played footsie since my teenage years but I can add it to the list if you want”  
“No need. What is on that list then?” Martin said, relaxing his legs and intertwining his feet with Douglas’.  
“Mostly just variations of throughout snogging”  
“You don’t have a list do you?” Martin said amused at having caught Douglas out for once.  
“I don’t, other people most likely do”  
“Do the authorities belong to that group?”  
“Are you insinuating not everyone is satisfied with being treated by Douglas Richardson?”  
“Wouldn’t be surprised” Martin said finally unwrapping his sandwich.  
“Wait with your judgement until you have had a taste” Douglas said winking, taking a bite of his own sandwich.   
Martin started coughing at that and had to put down his sandwich to take a sip of water before he was able to speak again “Douglas!”

Arthur chose that moment to return and Martin tried to pull back his feet but Douglas held on the best he could whispering “It’s hidden”  
Apparently he hadn’t been silent enough “What’s hidden? Are you hunting for a treasure?”  
Since all Martin could do was blush, which was hidden Arthur’s sight by the seating arrangement, Douglas answered “No treasure. Martin just wondered about the remnants of my wild youth”  
“Oh! Brilliant!” exclaimed Arthur “Oh you started eating already!” He continued, jumping onto his bed almost scattering the food onto the floor with the force of his impact.   
“Yeah, we have. Sorry.” said Martin having finally recovered from his embarrassment.  
“No problem, there’s plenty left after all” Arthur grabbed one of the sandwiches at random and didn’t even look at it while he unwrapped it.  
“Are you sure you want to just eat a sandwich without knowing what is in it?”  
“Yes! It’s hard to surprise yourself with food, it’s always announced so greatly what it is. But this is a brilliant way, don’t you think?”  
“That’s one way to see it”

_________________

 

They finished their sandwiches in silence Douglas getting up to get a second one for Martin and himself at some point. Entangling their feet again at his return. In the time it took the pilots to eat their two sandwiches Arthur had devoured at least 4 and there were still more than enough left. Douglas was sure some of the sandwiches could be kept as snacks for later, as long as they made even more sure to stay away from the fish. 

After they finished eating Douglas and Martin had to leave the table and the uncomfortable chairs behind to get back to their respective sides of the room.   
Neither one of them wanted to leave, feeling very comfortable despite the discomfort of the provided furniture, though both knew they had to or they would be caught out even by Arthur.   
Why would they normally sit this close together when not at work?  
They finally left the table after emptying their water bottles to return to their respective reading. This time without the teasing texts.   
Douglas was very tempted but it would be torture on Martin and himself if he did it. It was unlikely Arthur would leave the room again for the rest of the day, not long enough for them anyway. 

The rest of the day went by without any incidents, but with a lot of boredom, until there was a knock on their door around 6pm. Arthur had his ear-buds in and appeared to not have heard the knocking so Martin, being closest to the door, stood up and opened it. 

As soon as he the door was opened a bit it was pushed open from the outside and Carolyn marched into their room “Good News, Drivers!”  
“W-We can’t fly another job when we don’t know what plans our current client has” Martin panicked at Carolyn’s happy tone.  
“We won’t. But our client just called. We are going to leave early the day after tomorrow. So prepare everything for that.”  
“Does that mean we will get tomorrow off?” Douglas asked from his bed not bothering to move.  
“Yes”  
“Brilliant!” said Arthur having sat up and removed his ear-buds as soon as he realised what was happening “Can we go to the zoo? They have talking penguins”  
“That was a cartoon” Douglas said remembering seeing the penguins everywhere and he had still been allowed to see his daughter when the movie came out.   
“Really? I still want to go to the zoo though!”  
“If there is no more paperwork I can take you tomorrow” Carolyn relented at the eager face of her son.  
Arthur did a little victory dance while sitting down so it was more of a victory wriggle.   
“And you two do your paperwork too. There is no time for it on the day we fly. When I said early I meant that the client said as early as possible. She wants to attend something.”  
“Where are we flying then?” Martin asked, looking like he was already filing the flight plan in his head.   
“Buenos Aires”  
Douglas groaned.   
“It’s our client’s wish so no complaining” Carolyn reprimanded him.  
“I just hate the tropic heat”  
“Tough luck. We are flying there” and with that Carolyn was out of the room again pulling the door closed behind her.   
“Do you want to go to the zoo too?”  
“No thank you Arthur” Martin said “Douglas and I need to prepare for the flight”   
For once Douglas didn’t complain about having to work, hoping Martin was thinking along the same lines of what could happen while Arthur and Carolyn were away.   
He was fully aware the paperwork for a flight like that wouldn’t take too long, even if he never did it, and was also well aware that Martin could finish everything but the flight plan, which would have to wait until it was closer to the flight, in less than an hour today.   
“Ok. I’ll take some pictures for you then”  
“That’s very kind of you”

___________________

After having slept for almost 12 hours the last night and having done basically done nothing all day, sleep didn’t come as easy to either pilot but they still went to bed at a reasonable time and after they managed to get an excited Arthur to go to bed. 

___________________

The next day they were once again awoken early in the morning by Arthur though he wasn’t doing it on his mother’s orders this time, but instead out of pure excitement of seeing the zoo. If Douglas told anyone about their steward they would always ask what grade he was in. It was hard to correct them and tell them that Arthur was indeed almost 30 years old. 

“Good morning chaps! Did I wake you?”  
“Yes you did” grumbled Martin.  
“Sorry. It’s just. I’m going to see the famous zoo”  
“So Carolyn finished her paperwork?”   
“Yes! She told me that we would leave at 9 so we would get there before the crowd and because it’s a big zoo and I still have to eat breakfast”  
“Yes breakfast is important” Douglas said trying to blindly grab his phone from the nightstand to check the time.   
“I would ask you if you wanted to join me but it’s already after 8 and I didn’t really want to wake you”  
“No problem Arthur we will be fine” Douglas said finally getting a look at his phone: 8:19am.  
If Arthur ate as much cereal for breakfast as he did yesterday he should really get going. “Do you have everything you need?” He added partially out of paternal instinct and partially to assess if he would be coming back.  
“Right-o! Yes I have everything. See phone and wallet and key” He said pulling one item after the other from his pockets “I have to go now!”   
“Have a nice day!” “Have fun!” Martin and Douglas said in at the same time. 

And with that Arthur was out of the door.


	11. Lots of making...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait... I wanted to get this up almost 2 weeks ago but my life decided to be annoyingly busy...   
> Well here is the next chapter. Please enjoy!  
> (I hope to be back on the 2 week schedule but life might be unpredictable for the rest of the month...

Douglas and Martin looked at each other from across the room. 

“Come here” Martin said his voice deeper than normal from sleep. Or was it something else?  
“Just a moment” Douglas said getting up and vanishing into the bathroom. 

When he came back into the room Douglas walked straight to Martin’s bed.  
He didn’t make any move to get into it, instead he stood close to the foot of the bed “You summoned me?”  
“Yes I did come here.” Martin demanded once more, now adding a gesture too.  
“Oh wouldn’t that be highly inappropriate, Sir?” Douglas teased, wanting to see what would happen, though he did step a bit closer to the head of the bed.  
He had been prepared for a reaction from Martin, but when Martin moved faster than Douglas thought was possible he was still taken by surprise.   
Martin pulled him down onto the bed, by the front of his shirt. Douglas stumbled from the sudden movement and landed sprawled across Martin.

“You are going to destroy one of my shirts if you keep pulling on them”  
“Maybe you need to stop being a smart-ass then.” Martin said tugging at Douglas shirt again trying to get him to move. “You know what I want so stop teasing”  
“How am I supposed to know what’s going on in Sir’s mind?”  
“And here I thought one of the qualities of a pilot is being good at observing their surroundings and reacting accordingly”  
“You are no fun in the mornings” Douglas relented and moved up on the bed to be on the same height as Martin.  
“I can be plenty of fun, if you let me” Martin winked, moving in for a kiss now that Douglas’ mouth finally was within reach of his.  
“Mmmmh” The kiss cut off any reply Douglas could have formed.

___________________

 

Martin purposefully kept the kiss light and pulled back after only a few seconds.   
Douglas tried to follow but Martin had the advantage of not being mostly just sprawled across the bed so it was easy to evade.  
“No fair” Douglas said when he realised he wouldn’t be able to get another kiss from Martin this way.   
“I didn’t start this”  
“If I recall you did” Douglas started “One rainy evening long ago…”  
“Stop it” Martin said not really exasperated by his first officers fondness of teasing but trying to sound like he was.   
He went in for a kiss again this time trying to put more dominance in the kiss. Douglas kissed back with passion but Martin’s legs started to hurt where Douglas was sprawled on them, so he tried to push Douglas onto the bed next to him so he could fully enjoy kissing Douglas.   
Douglas resisted for a bit but let himself be pushed after a short while, making a surprised noise when Martin was following him down without breaking the kiss. 

__________________

 

Douglas was surprised at the unusual position of being underneath his partner but loved the new angle all the same. 

Martin pushing Douglas had put him close to the edge. He couldn’t move much without risking falling off the bed, but he could hook his arms around Martin’s neck and pull him closer.   
They had been kissing for quite some time but Martin had kept the kiss tame the whole time. Douglas felt like it was time to take this further so he slightly opened his lips, trying to taste Martin first hand for the first time.

Martin made a sound at the touch of Douglas’ tongue on his lips but Douglas didn’t want to push Martin any farther, he was willing to keep the kiss like it was if Martin wasn’t ready.   
Martin broke the kiss, looking down at Douglas with hooded eyes. Douglas looked right back surprised at the kiss suddenly ending.

“Are you ok?”   
“Yeah” Douglas breathed “You worrywart” he added mumbling, dazed by the incredible feeling of the kiss.

Martin scooted back towards the wall on his bed apparently having realised Douglas was a bit close to the edge. The bed wasn’t big enough for this move to completely dislodge Douglas’ arms from his shoulders.

“Do you want me to ruin your shirt or will you come over here?”  
“While I certainly want to know what Sir is capable of I think it might not be a good idea right now” Douglas moved towards Martin, happy to be no longer in danger of falling off the bed. When he had resettled he smiled up at Martin from where he was now lying on his pillow. 

“You need to stop talking” was all Martin said before leaning over Douglas again, placing one arm next to Douglas’ shoulders sliding his fingers into his hair. Douglas leaned into the touch, unable to resist intensifying the feeling of Martin’s fingers on his skull.  
Douglas had been expecting Martin to simply kiss him again but he just moved in close so their lips were barely a centimetre apart.   
“Do you understand?” Douglas shivered and he couldn’t say if it was from Martin’s warm breath on his lips or the tone of his voice. He nodded not trusting his voice to be steady.   
“Good” Martin said, smile audible in his voice, finally closing the gap.

Douglas barely managed to swallow the whine that had threatened to leave his throat when Martin ended the kiss far too soon. Instead starting to nip at his lips, his cheeks and at some point even his nose.   
The fight was lost sooner than Douglas had wished for.

“Maaaartiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg” The end of Douglas whine was swallowed by Martin finally going back to kissing him.   
Martin tried deepening the kiss soon after that and Douglas participated willingly, revelling in the feeling of Martin’s tongue stroking his and all the emotions that came with the action. 

Douglas had been mostly passive during the kiss, almost too overwhelmed by the touches and emotions to do more than participate in the kiss.   
When Martin’s hand started moving in his hair, he realised that Martin was doing all the work and started to more than that. It took more brain-power to try moving his arms around Martin’s back than it should have.   
Douglas only got one arm where he wanted it, because Martin was still mostly lying on his side.  
He moved the hand on Martin’s back up and down in long strokes not really knowing what he should do with it, just that he needed, wanted to touch Martin and not just be touched by him.   
Martin hummed approvingly at Douglas’ actions.

When he realised his strokes were sliding Martin’s shirt up and down his back, Douglas started moving his hand with more purpose. He lightened the down stroke so he could slowly slide Martin’s shirt up his back, waiting for the moment when he would touch skin instead of fabric.

At the touch both pilots hummed. It was all Douglas needed to continue exploring Martin’s soft skin under the rougher skin of his hand.  
He must have found a sensitive spot on Martin’s back when Martin made a noise that was closer to a moan than anything Douglas had heard from him all morning. At the same time Martin tightened his hand in Douglas’ his hair, nails almost scratching along Douglas’ scalp, pulling a moan from Douglas too. 

______________

 

Martin pulled back panting, relaxing his grip on Douglas hair, keeping his hand where it was. Looking down at Douglas, he found him more flushed than he had ever seen him before.   
Martin knew his blush would still be more vivid. Seeing Douglas’ cheeks tinted in a pretty pink and panting slightly, eyes half closed, made Martin’s blush deepen if anything. He couldn’t fully believe he had done this to Douglas. Douglas Richardson.  
“Wow” Martin voiced his wonder.  
“Mmmmmmh” was all Douglas answered, licking his lips. 

Martin might be courageous in the moment but it would take a while to get used to the fact that Douglas would give up control so easily, react so clearly and positively to Martin’s attentions, even if he still teased.

“Does that mean I will now start winning our fights in the flight deck?” Martin quipped after a while of looking into Douglas’ eyes trying to get his breathing back to normal.  
“Don’t even think about it” Douglas answered lazily, as if he hadn’t just been in the same state as Martin “I’m still the better pilot” he seemed to think about it though “I could let you win those though if I got something else in return” he winked.  
“Douglas!” Martin said with a groan resting his head on Douglas’ chest and in the movement also leaning more of his weight on Douglas’ side, involuntarily tightening the grip of his hand.  
He more felt than heard the deep sound of content Douglas made at that, it was not unlike the purr of a cat. 

Martin lied down on Douglas chest more fully, resting his head on his hands, removing his hand from Douglas’ hair in the process. The change in position allowed him to look straight into Douglas’ eyes. 

“So you like it when I touch your hair?” Martin asked, curious.  
“You could say that” Douglas said and as if remembering only now that his hand was still under Martin’s shirt, started to stroke his back again.   
Martin tried not to react as Douglas found that sensitive spot again but failed. Humming, eyes closing for just a second.   
“Am I right to assume Sir has a sensitive spot on his lower back?”  
“Not only there” Martin mumbled into the back of his hand.  
Douglas had apparently still heard his words “Where else?”  
“Lots of places. I don’t know them all, people don’t usually search for them…” Martin answered shyly, once again reminded of how inexperienced he was compared to Douglas.  
“To be fair I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about the hair thing” Douglas confessed, making Martin look back up, into his eyes.  
“Really?”   
“Yes. I was more occupied with pleasing my partners in the past, not many of them decided to do the same for me. Especially not the one-night stands” Martin almost couldn’t believe that Douglas wasn’t sure about something like that.  
“Does that mean we are mostly on equal ground in this?” Martin asked tentatively.  
“Seems like it” Douglas said, trying to finally move his other arm around Martin’s back too. When Martin realised what Douglas was doing he tried making it easier for Douglas, now almost fully lying on Douglas. One of his legs had found it’s way between Douglas’ and no part of his upper body was still touching the bed.   
Douglas kept his other arm above Martin’s shirt, tightening his hold on Martin now that it was possible. “I think there is something missing”  
“What?” Martin said looking around to find whatever Douglas was referring to.  
“Kisses” Douglas laughed at Martin’s sudden panic.   
“You sod” Martin said without any heat and moving his arms so he could lean down and kiss Douglas again.   
This time he could move both of his hands to the side of Douglas’ head, keeping it steady. He placed short little kisses on Douglas’ lips before starting to worry again.

“Am I not too heavy?”  
“No, you’re probably lighter than some of my ex-wives”   
“Really?”  
“Yes, Martin. Stop doubting yourself. I’ll tell you if something isn’t good” Douglas said seriously, he didn’t keep the level of seriousness for long though “So would the Captain please proceed to the check out”  
“So all I am allowed now is checking you out?” Martin said grinning at Douglas joke.  
“Ah, that wording might have been unfortunate. You are allowed to test the goods as you say fit”  
“Oh. What a customer service” Martin said not losing his smile while kissing Douglas all over his face again. Finishing his journey on Douglas’ lips, the kiss he placed there less chaste than the others.   
When Martin pulled back for air Douglas asked “You like kissing don’t you?”  
“Yeah” Martin said blushing, embarrassed at being caught out even though he didn’t think Douglas would really mind.  
“Good thing I like being kissed then” Douglas said holding Martin impossibly tighter.   
Martin giggled with happiness, Douglas joining in not long after.   
“God we are ridiculous” Martin said.  
“Well I think that is part of being in a relationship or so I have heard”  
“That doesn’t sound like an official statement”  
“Maybe not but I’ve heard it often enough”  
Before Martin could answer his stomach growled loudly, he blushed “Sorry”  
“We should go to breakfast anyway if we don’t want to pay ourselves. I have no idea what time it actually is but probably later than we think it is”  
“Oh right. I forgot about breakfast” Martin said his blush deepening.

________________

They got dressed for breakfast and while Martin was occupying the bathroom, Douglas was left to wonder how he had never found a partner like Martin before.  
Maybe it was because he had never searched for one.   
What he had wanted was a good reputation and later keeping up the reputation he had build for himself. The impeccable Sky-God who could pull stewardesses and other women left and right. 

After Helena he had stopped trying to keep up this reputation. He was too old for it and he couldn’t afford another wife, trophy or not.   
People might think of him as egoistical and in parts he supposed he was, but most things he did he did for his reputation and not for himself. Now fate had given him what he needed for himself, as if to say: ‘Stop here Douglas. Do something good for you and others’  
Who was he to say no to that if it brought him Martin. Martin, who was so very different from him and yet they fit so well together. Even just two days had proven that, at least to Douglas. He had no idea how invested Martin was in this, but he wouldn’t complain about however much he would get from him.

Martin came out of the bathroom all too soon, stopping Douglas from finishing to think about it, but just in time to stop him from over-thinking.   
There were things about himself he didn’t intend to tell Martin about in fear of breaking them up. That didn’t stop Douglas thinking about what would happen if Martin found out after all and all the complications that would come with it.

When they were both ready they went down to breakfast. Arriving just in time to be able to eat breakfast without being ushered out in the middle of their meal. 

“So as Carolyn and Arthur will be away all day and we are allowed to leave this place; what should we do with our day?” Douglas asked in the middle of eating.  
“Mmmm… We never got to see Time Square. We can’t go in the dark now but I still kind of want to see it”  
“So some more sightseeing?”  
“Yeah if you’re up for that”  
“My standards for today are pretty low”  
“What are your standards then?” Martin asked curious.  
“Spending the day with you”


	12. Spinning in the light

Martin blushed at Douglas admitting these things so openly.   
He could do it in private, but being in public had always tied Martin’s tongue and right now they were in the hotel’s breakfast bar, it was mostly empty but still a public place.   
On top of that society had taught him to hold back his affections when with men, it helped that he wasn’t terribly good at talking in the first place.

“You really don’t have anything you want to see?”  
“There’s only one thing I want to see today”  
“What?” Martin asked, suspicious about what Douglas was planning now after he had not outright said what he wanted before.  
“You” He exclaimed with pride and like it was the most natural thing to say.  
Martin held his hands in front of his face to hide the deep blush on his face, but it was probably futile as he could feel it spreading down his neck. “Douuuglaaasss!” He groaned and then giving up hiding he faced Douglas again “I have no idea how you managed to get 3 wives and a horde of stewardesses with pick-up lines like that”  
“Well the secret is I didn’t. A true Sky God finds the best way to please his conquest and uses that”  
“Consider me not pleased by your approach” Martin tried to dismiss the topic once and for all.  
“I beg to differ” Douglas said smiling teasingly.  
“Stop being so cheesy” Martin stopped Douglas from further elaborating or rather further embarrassing him “So Times Square. What then?”  
Douglas for once let go of the topic he was derailed from “We’ve already seen the obvious sights. I guess we could either see some more of central park or walk down Broadway. I don’t know much else we could do, as I don’t suppose you want to go on a shopping spree to buy a whole new wardrobe?”  
“Oh god no. I could use one but I can’t afford the clothes here”  
“I agree it’s horrendously overpriced. Once in my life was enough”  
“You got a new wardrobe here?”  
“Helena did. It felt like it anyways. No one can stop a woman on a mission.”  
“Ah. You don’t have to fear that with me” Martin gestured to himself or more precise to his ratty washed out t-shirt that looked like it wouldn’t survive another wash cycle without falling apart.

_______________

 

Douglas was confused for a moment if Martin meant that he didn’t want to go shopping because he was a man or if he was still saying that he couldn’t afford the high end shops in New York City. He let the thought go as it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t be dragged around the shops and that was all that counted wasn’t it?  
Not being made to look at stuff he couldn’t have. 

“Good.” Douglas finally said after what felt like a too long time. He hadn’t realised they had finished eating while they had been talking “Shall we get ready and leave then?”  
“Yeah.” Martin said, shortly after adding “Do we need to take our coats? I don’t want to get wet again”  
“I had such high hopes to get to see you in swimming trunks in Buenos Aires”  
“You know what I meant” Martin scowled, clarifying himself anyway “I don’t mind swimming. I just hate getting wet in the rain”   
“So I will see you in swimming trunks in the near future?” Douglas asked lewdly.  
“Depends on our schedule” Martin dismissed Douglas but still blushed.  
“I will take that as a yes then” Douglas said walking away from their table leaving Martin to scramble up to follow him. 

They went up to the room to gather their things. Douglas looked out of the dingy little window of the room to see the sky.   
“Clear skies over New York”  
“We thought that last time too” Martin said joining Douglas having to stand very close because the window was so small.   
“I still think we will be fine. So come on” Douglas said leaning down to kiss Martin before stepping away.   
Martin followed him grabbing his hand before they left the room. 

They walked to the station hand in hand Martin smiling and Douglas trying to match his pace to Martin’s the best he could so Martin didn’t have to walk beside him in a half jog.   
There were certainly a lot of disadvantages to having a shorter partner. Most of the women he had dated for a longer time had been taller than Martin, closer to his own height. He had always liked it better when he wasn’t looking down at people, but somehow it never felt like looking down ON Martin, merely like having to look down to look AT him.

Douglas couldn’t help but smile too.   
The sun was fully out barely a cloud in the sky. It was warm but no stifling heat. It could get worse closer to the city centre, it usually was, but he was optimistic that it would be fine. He hated stifling heat so he tried not to go to any tropic climates but this day in New York City with sunshine would be a good day no matter what.

They once again boarded the subway and made the journey to Time Square, spending their time chatting now and then but also enjoying the quiet while leaning against each other in their seats. When they arrived Douglas led Martin out of the station by his hand and towards the famous place. 

_______________

 

“Wow. It’s even more impressive in real life!” Was the first thing Martin had said after the famous billboards had come into view and he had started staring at them.   
The lights were still clearly visible even in the sunlight.

“I really need to take you to more places if you always react like this” Douglas said amused at Martin’s actions.  
“Sorry. It’s just you always see these things on TV so you know them better than some places in your hometown but being there in person is still so different”  
“No need to be sorry. I had almost thought you couldn’t react like that to something that doesn’t involve flying or planes”  
“I like other things too. Flying is just the most important thing, and it took so much work to get there that I don’t want it to be taken away by a mistake or by breaking a rule”  
“Well it won’t!” Douglas said with compassion. He could promise not to break any rules in the future to keep Martin save but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep such a promise, sometimes breaking the rules was needed to keep things going. What he could do though was make a silent promise to himself to try sticking to the rules more often so Martin could feel more comfortable.

They wandered around for a bit after Martin had finally stopped staring at all the billboards around him or rather when Douglas stopped him after he spun around fast and Douglas remembered Martin had some kind of condition in his inner-ear and couldn’t get dizzy without fainting.   
“Come on Captain Topsy-Turvy” he said after he stopped Martin who half stumbled into his arms. “Let’s get coffee somewhere”

“Ok” Martin said still stumbling a bit while walking.  
“Are you ok? No point in trying to be brave if I later have to deal with an unconscious captain”  
“Yeah. I just need to sit down for a bit and stop being dizzy”  
“Why did you even spin around that fast?” Douglas said almost fuzzing over Martin’s health like a mother hen.  
“I wanted to see how much of it I could see at the same time.”  
“Next time let me take a panorama picture or something” Douglas half joked.

They made their way to the closest shop that looked like it was serving coffee. It was one of these fancy coffee shops that probably didn’t even serve normal coffee.   
Douglas placed Martin on a chair by the window looking out on Broadway “What do you want to drink? I think you can have anything but normal drinks” Douglas asked.  
Martin looked up to the menu hanging over the register, already looking a lot more steady now that he was sitting down “I think I’ll try the hibiscus tea? Sound’s nice” Martin moved to take his wallet from his pants.  
“My treat Martin” Douglas said stopping Martin’s movements.  
“You don’t need to pay for my food”  
“I know. I want to and it’s just a drink”  
“Ok then” Martin relented easily. Douglas knew he wouldn’t get away so easily with treating Martin to dinner or other more important things but he would try. 

Douglas walked over to queue at the counter and saw that they served pastries too and when he got closer and saw the raspberry flavoured cheesecake he decided to get a slice but to also get a double chocolate muffin that looked very good.   
That in mind he waited his turn and ordered everything from the young barista.   
It took a bit for his order to get ready but he spend the time waiting at the counter looking over at Martin sitting by the window looking outside to the busy street, the sun from outside making his hair glow.

_________________

 

When Douglas had walked away Martin had looked at him from where he was seated.   
Douglas hips had a light enchanting swing to them when he was walking and Martin couldn’t stop staring at Douglas backside.   
It didn’t help that he was wearing those damnable jeans again that hugged him in all the right places.  
He was so good looking, Martin didn’t know how he got so lucky and it was hard to stop staring especially when Douglas kept moving around minusculy while waiting for his turn. 

Martin wanted to go over and touch Douglas’ butt to feel if it was as firm as those jeans made it look.   
He stopped himself and instead put it on his mental list of things he wanted to do.

Martin didn’t manage to turn his gaze away until his view was blocked by another customer. He looked out of the window instead to calm his thoughts. 

It worked partially as that his thoughts were no longer fixed on a specific part of Douglas’ anatomy, but instead they wandered to Douglas’ surprising reactions to Martin’s actions. 

Who would have thought that Douglas Richardson had a thing for being dominated? He didn’t know how far this thing went, but he wanted to explore more of it in time.   
How far would Douglas let Martin go?  
His mind went back to the images of Douglas’ hooded eyes or the sounds he made at sometimes the slightest of touches.   
Now that he was removed from the situation it was easier to think about it, so far easier for his thoughts to drift into fantasies that would make him blush here in the middle of a foreign city, sitting alone at a table in a coffee shop. 

Martin managed to break that train of thought before Douglas came back. It wasn’t easy. Concentrating on the people walking by the window helped. Moving around with a sense of purpose barely looking up at other people. Not realising that amongst them there sat an airline captain that felt like he had won every lottery there is. 

Deep in Martin’s thoughts there was a seed of doubt about his luck. That he could never get this lucky and shouldn’t be this happy, life had never been that way. But the positive thoughts were too strong for it to really grow.  
For now. 

Martin looked back towards the counter to see how long it would take Douglas to come back, but as he looked Douglas was already halfway across the shop carrying a tray that had more than the two drinks he had wanted to get on it.   
He put it down on the table and sat down opposite of Martin. 

“I have brought us cake. Cheesecake” Douglas said while placing Martin’s drink in front of him.   
“Is it poisoned?”  
“I hope not. It should taste a lot better than airline catering, too”  
“Ah yes” Martin chuckled. Your tastebuds got pretty much busted up in the air, but it was still possible to taste how bad the cheap, made to last food sometimes was.   
“You only brought one slice though”  
“I wanted to bring an alternative” Douglas shrugged “But if you want it I’m happy with the muffin”

______________

 

“We could share you know…” Martin said shyly “I mean if you want to…”  
“Ok” Douglas said picking up one of the little forks he had gotten, cutting of a little piece of the cheesecake and moving it towards Martin’s mouth.  
“Really?” Martin asked blushing.  
“Yep” Douglas smiled.

Martin opened up his mouth and moved towards the piece of cake. Douglas helped manoeuvring it to its destination and watched with fascination as Martin closed his lips around the fork to get all of the cake in one bite.   
He made a little sound of contentment when it hit his taste-buds, more a hum than a moan but he also had his eyes closed and was sucking on the fork as if that was the source of the taste that had hit his senses.   
‘Wrong move’ was one of the only things that Douglas could still clearly think about. The rest of his thoughts had went to imagine Martin performing similar actions on Douglas’ body. 

“It’s definitely nicer than the cheesecake Carolyn served us” Martin said after he had let the fork fall from his mouth and swallowed.   
“huh?” Douglas was startled out of his thoughts, fork still held up, Martin looking at him with a look Douglas couldn’t really decipher but there was something very sexy about it. It made him feel less guilty about his thoughts. “Ah yeah I bet it is” he managed to answer after a few seconds.   
“You should try it too” Martin said picking up the other fork and imitating Douglas earlier moves fed a piece of cake to Douglas. 

When he tasted the cake Douglas couldn’t help but close his eyes to fully appreciate the taste.  
Not only was it better than what Carolyn served them, it was also in the top 3 of cakes he had ever tasted. He couldn’t help but making an appreciative sound too. 

They finished eating the cake by using their own forks instead of feeding each other.   
Afterwards they shared the muffin in a similar manner. It’s dough was baked on point so it was luscious and just the right level of chocolatey   
It wasn’t overwhelming or too sweet. Just the dark rich taste of expensive chocolate.

They took their time finishing up, in no hurry to get back. It was nice to just sit together.   
Douglas opened up about parts of his last trip to New York, while Martin mostly just listened.


	13. how's the weather?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here have the new chapter :D finally :D It's once again un-betaed.

“There’s something on your face” Martin said as they were finishing up and getting ready to leave.  
“What? Where?” Douglas was confused, he almost never got food on his faced.  
Martin pointed with his finger “There”  
Douglas tried finding the spot Martin was pointing at but couldn’t find it. Martin was simply looking, an amused glint in his eyes. “Is there really something? Or are you mocking me?”  
“There is” Martin said “Lean over I will get it” 

Douglas did as he was told and instead of reaching out with his hand Martin too leaned over the table, having to get out of the chair slightly to reach Douglas and kissed away the crumbs at the corner of Douglas’ mouth.   
He drew out the kiss a bit longer than needed and pulled back a bit just so far that he could properly sit again. “Mmmmh yeah now your face is fine.”  
“Only fine? I’m hurt. I have been complimented on my face quite often but you only think it’s fine?” Douglas feigned hurt.  
“Next time I will let you walk around with the chocolate still on your face”  
“Would you really walk around with someone with chocolate on their face happily chatting away with you?”  
“Yes or would you rather I do the old spit napkin trick?”  
“No” Douglas said face hardening.   
Martin chuckled at Douglas grumpy face “See” Martin got up taking the tray with him to take it back to the counter winking at Douglas over his shoulder.

When Martin came back Douglas was still sitting at the table, looking dumbfounded.  
“Are you coming?” Martin asked holding out his hand.  
“Sure” Douglas said taking the offered hand and Martin pulled on the hand he was holding. Douglas stumbled a bit at that. This reminded Martin that people often forgot he had to be quite strong, as his job was to haul other people’s property around.  
Douglas caught himself before he stumbled into Martin’s arms, much to Martin’s disappointment, but Douglas kept holding his hand just readjusting it to a better position. It was the first time Douglas actively did something for them to walk hand in hand. 

___________

 

“So what next?” Martin asked right after they were out of the door.  
“I think Central Park would be nicer than walking the streets if you are up for that” Douglas said thoughtfully.   
“Ok” Martin agreed “Lead the way”

Douglas had to think for a moment to remember in which direction they had to walk. He had checked a map on the subway but New York was a big and unfamiliar city.   
In the end he decided to check the map again to avoid walking 20 minutes in the wrong direction.  
Hiss phone confirmed the direction he thought it would be “That way” and started walking Martin followed him without question. 

They made their way to Central park at a slow pace, stopping to look at shops and other things along the way. There was no pressure after all.   
They would discuss funny shop names, and after a while made a game out of thinking about stories behind some of the names or finding better names.

They arrived at the park in good spirits and had reached a different entrance than last time so it was likely they would be seeing a completely different part of the park.   
They tried to stay away from the zoo to avoid the Knapp-Shappey’s and instead walked around the rest of it.   
They walked by ‘Strawberry Fields’ which led to a discussion about pop music.   
Douglas wasn’t well versed on the topic but Martin chatting animatedly about it made him wish he was more fond of it. He couldn’t really add much on the finer details of it but as he liked to listen to the radio at times and various airports had music in their lounges, in which he had spend a lot of time in in his life. So he did know about the very popular songs and could talk about them. 

_______________ 

 

After around 2 hours of walking around they decided to have a little break from all the walking and sit down. But all the benches in the area were occupied. The lawns looked dry enough though, so they decided to sit in the shade of a tree.

“Oh god I’m going to be so burnt tomorrow” Martin said touching his already tender nose.  
“Oh?”  
“Yeah I’m ginger if you haven’t realised. I burn pretty fast and I forgot to put on sunscreen this morning. A day in the sun even with it can burn me and I can already feel it starting on my nose”  
“It does look a bit redder than normal” Douglas leaned in closer to inspect it, shading Martin’s face even more than the tree did. Instead of pulling back after he had looked at it he placed a kiss on Martin’s nose. Douglas was older than him but on these dates he was acting like a teenager.  
“There all better” Douglas grinned pulling back.

Martin grabbed Douglas’ head before he could fully pull back and kissed him properly.  
Douglas kissed back, steadying himself by holding onto Martin’s upper arms. Martin slid his hands from the sides of Douglas’ head towards his shoulders to have a better grip, but broke the kiss soon, still holding onto Douglas. 

“Yeah I’m totally sure sunburn can be cured by kissing” Martin said with a smile.  
“Only my kisses. Secret Richardson Powers” Douglas assured him.  
“Ah yes how could I forget about them” Martin started laughing.  
“How could you” Douglas said letting go of Martin’s arms to cross his over his chest and putting on an exaggerated frown.  
He couldn’t stop laughing, wheezing in air between burst of laughter “You” he gasped “are” “ridiculous”   
“No. I’m not.” Douglas said trying to keep frowning, but he too, was cracking up. 

Without Douglas holding on to him Martin started tilting to the side and falling over still laughing hard.   
Douglas couldn’t stop his laughter any longer, not as gone as Martin but still full on laughing.

Martin hid his face in his arms slowly catching his breath.  
When he finally thought he had managed to stop laughing, he looked up at Douglas and he couldn’t help but start again.  
“Douuuglasss” he managed to squeeze out between the laughing, reaching out to hold onto Douglas, managing to grasp his arm with one hand. 

Douglas was almost worried for Martin’s well being the way he seemed to manage so little breaths, but he supposed he was fine. As long as he was still talking he wouldn’t be dying.

 

“Yes?” Douglas asked.  
“Can’t.” “Stop.”

Douglas was at a loss at how to stop the laughing fit Martin seemed to be in.  
He moved around so he could pull Martin into a sitting position with his back towards himself.   
Breathing calmly behind Martin, Douglas lowly said “Breath with me. In. Out.” Matching his breathing to his words. 

At first it didn’t seem to work and Douglas was already thinking about other ways to help. But then Martin slowly started relaxing against him, breathing not yet steady but on it’s way.

So Douglas keeps up his slow breathing until Martin had fully calmed down, or at least Douglas thinks he has, not having laughed in a minute or two he hears a soft “Thank you”  
“For what?”  
“Helping me” Martin said sounding slightly ashamed “Sometimes I just get caught in laughing and can’t stop. Normally it takes a lot longer to calm down”  
“No problem. I couldn’t let you suffer, could I?”  
“Some people think it’s funny. But nothing really can get me out of it, most things just make it worse”  
“I should remember this technique for the future then” Douglas said placing a small kiss to the side of Martin’s head where it had lolled back onto his shoulder when Martin had relaxed.  
“Thank you!” Martin said again. 

Douglas didn’t say anything to that. Instead he burrowed his nose in Martin’s locks for the first time, trying to smell just Martin’s hair.   
It had a nice smell. It didn’t smell of much of anything, just Martin. No hint of the overly ‘manly’ smell some cheap soaps and shampoos for men had. Just natural.   
It was nice. 

“Mmmmh. Your breath is tickling my ear” Martin said slowly, still relaxing against Douglas.  
“Should I stop?”   
“It’s fine for now…” Douglas noted that Martin did not seem very eager to have his ear tickled so he tried to avoid breathing onto it.

After a bit of just sitting in silence Martin half turned around in Douglas arms so he could look at Douglas.   
Douglas smiled at Martin, smile growing when Martin lifted his arms and pulled Douglas into a sideways hug.  
Douglas still had his arms around Martin even though he had been holding himself up for some time already. He tightened his arms again in answer to Martin’s hug. 

In any other situation their positions might have been awkward. Douglas sitting on the lawn of a park and Martin sitting between his legs half twisted around, his legs were lying on Douglas’ in part.   
But right now it felt like the best place to be.

After a bit Douglas was reminded of the fact he was no longer a teenager. “Martin?” he reluctantly asked.  
“Yeah?”  
“I would gladly continue this arrangement, but my back will kill me if I sit like this for any longer”  
Martin scrambled to get away from Douglas, but he was still holding on to Martin, so he was forced to stop.  
“Martin, no need to panic. I’m just not a teenager anymore. We just need to move a bit, that should do the trick.”  
“How?” Martin asked truly out of his depth.   
“I just need to lean against something and I’ll be fine” Douglas explained “Like the tree...”  
“But won’t your back get dirty from it?” Martin inquired “And is it really more comfortable? It doesn’t look that way”  
“Martin. Stop panicking. I’m fine and it will be fine. I’m wearing a dark shirt so you won’t see anythings if there were stains, and yes it is more comfortable. Have you ever thought about the fact that the back of most chairs is little more than a fancy tree trunk?”  
Martin stopped his slight panic he had worked himself into at the thought of making Douglas uncomfortable. “Okay...”

Douglas finally let go of Martin, so Martin could get up. Moving to get up after Martin was standing.   
Martin helped him once again but this time he was prepared for Martin’s hidden strength and didn’t stumble. 

They walked the few steps towards the tree and Douglas sat down first leaning against it. Martin was still standing when Douglas had settled, so he pulled him down.  
“Come here”   
Martin went willingly settling between Douglas’ legs once again. This time arranging himself so he would be sitting sideways from the start stretching his legs out over one of Douglas’ and leaning on Douglas’ torso initiating another hug. 

 

They stayed like that for quite some time.   
After a while Douglas had started humming, Martin joining in at times. Sometimes humming, sometimes lowly singing along when he recognised a song he knew the lyrics to. 

It was a nice afternoon. They didn’t do much but it was just right.   
They had walked quite a bit and with an early flight the next day not exhausting themselves was a good thing.

Martin was on the verge of dozing off when a grumbling noise came from Douglas’ stomach.   
Martin twitched at the sound, becoming more aware of his surroundings again. 

“Sorry. I’m a bit hungry”  
“What time is it?”  
“No idea. My phone is in my pocket”

Martin reluctantly let go of Douglas and stood up.   
Douglas followed suit all with out Martin’s help and pulled his phone out of his pocket to check. 

“It’s 4:20pm”  
“Wow. I didn’t think it was so late already. But it explains being hungry”  
“It does” Douglas agreed “We should get some proper food. Carolyn has been way to generous on this trip to provide us with a full meal tonight”  
“Ah, yes” Martin thought about where they should eat dinner.   
After the silence stretched on without any of them moving, Martin finally asked “So what should we get for dinner?”  
“We are in America, so maybe some of their cuisine?”  
“Cuisine?”  
“Well I have been lead to believe that the food at some diners is very good and if in America one should visit one at least once”  
“Okay then” Martin agreed. Burgers or whatever food a potential diner served would be in his price range and it was nice once in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now with post sunny editing pic: https://www.instagram.com/p/BEdgaULCqdD/ (if anyone wanted to ever see the author ;p
> 
> and another little teaser :P next chapter will have a bonus scene :P


	14. Burgers are hard work, but so gratifying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be nice to me about this chapter. I have no idea what to think about this. but... urg well.  
> here it is
> 
> Please enjoy.

A short search on Douglas’ phone led the two to a diner that would be mostly on their way back. They had to take the subway there, but it was more on their way than all the other diners they had found in their search. 

The diner was nice. Not exactly like the old American movies made it out to be but it was still homely and smelled of coffee and bacon.  
They were seated in a corner booth, Martin’s back towards the rest of the restaurant, so his front was hidden from view of the few other patrons.  
After studying the menu for a bit both pilots decided on a burger and fries. Martin chose a simple cheeseburger, while Douglas decided on a more fancy one with grilled vegetables on it. 

They ordered the burgers from a young waitress that Douglas might have flirted with once upon a time but now he didn’t think about it more than that passing thought.  
Even Martin wasn’t fazed by her the way Douglas had seen him around pretty much every other pretty woman. 

________________________

 

“Why do you hate Buenos Aires so much?” Martin asked after their waitress had left, curious since Douglas usually liked places like that for his ‘exchange of presents’.  
“It’s just to hot. Every time I have been there it was so humid you sweat just thinking about going outside”  
“But isn’t it winter there now? It’s in the southern hemisphere right?”  
“Oh. Yeah. Maybe it’s better now. Still, South America has never been one of my favourite places”  
“No nice things to find there to give to friends?” Martin said trying to lighten the mood again.  
“Not much. Hard to export dancing and carnival isn’t it” Douglas shrugged.  
“Yeah, I guess”

Their meal arrived after a bit more talk about what Argentina would have to offer them be it good or bad. 

Martin fumbled a bit with picking up the burger, he couldn’t often indulge in food like that and the burger was pretty greasy and thus slippery.  
He looked over at how Douglas was doing with his bigger burger and saw him cutting his Burger in half. Martin thought about copying him, as this would make eating the burger easier, but as he had now finally succeeded in picking it up he would not admit defeat. 

Martin took the first bite of his Burger and was treated to the best tasting burger in his life. There wasn’t much to compare it to, but enough to say this was the best.  
In his youth he had only known burgers from big fast food chains now and then on trips with his family.  
His mum being the kind of housewife that cooks for her family as often as possible, she would cook even when the family was on vacation whenever it was possible. That paired with the fact that she didn’t approve of fast food very much because it was bad for your health and had no greens had lead to the Crieff children growing up without knowing much about fast food.

The burger was very juicy and Martin could feel stuff running down his hands after just a few bites. He continued eating though because he thought he wouldn’t manage to pick it back up if he set it down even for a second.

__________________________

 

The way Martin tried picking up his burger let Douglas know that he didn’t often ate this kind of food. He was more of an expert in that field of course. People might think he only went for the better, possibly stared cuisines, but he had never been above the simple pleasures of fast food.  
So Douglas knew that eating the kind of burger he ordered like that without cutting it at least in half would lead to unwanted spillage and a general mess.  
He might not be above enjoying fast food but he definitely hated to deal with half the burger spilt onto his plate, hands and maybe forearms completely sticky. 

He stopped watching Martin’s inexperienced Burger eating to enjoy his own meal.  
The burger was perfect.

They finished their burgers in silence. Martin was still fighting with the last bites that threatened to fall apart in his hands, when Douglas had already finished, so he watched Martin win the fight against his burger. 

Martin smiled at him in what looked like triumph when he had finally won.  
“I see Sir has finally defeated the burger”  
“Haha Douglas. I don’t eat burgers often. Why is it so hard?”  
“Well, I don’t consider myself an expert but eating it in smaller bits is generally easier”  
“Yeah I know that now” Martin said looking at his hands as if just realising they were covered in sauce and grease and whatever else dripped from the burger.

Douglas watched Martin lift his hand towards his face.  
Martin licked at his index finger, lifting his head to look into Douglas’ eyes.  
Douglas couldn’t help but stare while Martin licked his finger and later pulled it into his mouth. He was glad they were sitting in a corner of the restaurant so no one could really what Martin was doing and Martin was shielding his reaction from view.

He had sucked on his index finger with a pleased look on his face for what felt like minutes to Douglas but wasn’t likely to have been more than a few seconds when he moved on to his next finger, also throughly licking between them.  
Douglas’ brain was unwillingly flooded with images of what other things Martin could be doing with those skills. Preferably to Douglas.

Douglas had never been a person to blush in situations like that. He still wasn’t. But he knew that his body was reacting in other ways.  
His face, while not red probably showed exactly what effect Martin’s actions had on him.  
He couldn’t move his eyes from the display in front of him and he had probably licked his lips more times than he would ever admit. 

Martin seemed to have caught onto Douglas’ predicament by the time he had reached the third finger as he started adding a few sounds to his display. 

Martin had called Douglas a tease not long ago and now he was teasing himself.  
And there was no chance Douglas could confront them before they were in Buenos Aires. Carolyn and Arthur were bound to be back at the hotel already and their flight to Argentina would take them 10 more hours.

 

When Douglas finally managed a strained “Martinnn” Martin let the hand, on which he had been proceeded to lick his palm and wrist, fall down to the table.  
His simple answer of “Yes?” sounded way too innocent for this situation.  
“Please, stop” It took Douglas a few seconds, but now that Martin had stopped assaulting Douglas’ mind with visual cues for not very innocent fantasies he slowly felt like he could talk again without embarrassing himself.  
“Why?” Martin said still in that innocent tone of voice, but now that Douglas could focus on more again he could hear that underneath the innocence Martin’s voice had gone slightly deeper, huskier. It was only thing betraying he was affected too; or maybe that were the only things Douglas could find right now with his mind still replaying Martin’s earlier actions.  
He wasn’t a teenager anymore for god’s sake. 

_______________

Martin had enjoyed teasing Douglas tremendously. He knew it would be hard to tease Douglas verbally without blushing, but when he saw Douglas starring when he licked his finger to clean it he got an idea on how to repay Douglas for teasing him.

Douglas eyes went even wider and more fixed upon his mouth when he added low sounds.  
He would never have thought he would have so much power over another person; even less over Douglas Richardson. 

It was a heady feeling he enjoyed very much, but deep down below he regretted that he had started this today.  
It would be almost a whole day before he would be able to test how far he could take the teasing, or truth to be told how long he could keep the upper hand. Douglas had told him he liked it this way and his actions hadn’t shown anything on the contrary, but Martin still couldn’t believe it fully until he had seen it.  
The only reason he had any authority over Douglas in the flight deck was by pure chance, after all.

“Why?”  
Martin didn’t know what felt better about this situation, the feeling of being in control or the way Douglas was looking right now.

It took Douglas a few moments to answer and even then it still came out as pleading and husky as the words before. Martin guessed this wasn’t what Douglas had aimed for but he couldn’t help but like it.  
“Arthur and Carolyn will be back at the hotel already”

Martin knew what Douglas wanted to say with this simple sentence. It would be around 24 hours before they would have any chance of spending time in private. And that was only if Carolyn hadn’t managed to find another hotel/dump that offered three-bed rooms.

“So you don’t want my hands to be clean because our boss and steward are back in our hotel?” Martin said going for clueless.  
“Yes”  
“Douglas!” Martin said “Why would you want me to go back to the hotel with dirty fingers?”  
He finally wiped his hands on the offered napkins, knowing he should stop before either of them snapped.  
He would never deny that teasing Douglas in this manner was one of the best things he’d ever done, but he really didn’t wanted more of their ‘first times’ to happen in public.  
Douglas sighed, it sounded more like a breath of relief than a sigh really, like he finally let himself relax now that Martin had taken away the possibility of continuing the teasing. 

As they finished up their meals the tension from before fell away but was still simmering in the backs of their minds. Neither pilot was able to let go of the images the earlier had created. 

A few minutes later their waitress came back to take away their plates and ask about dessert.  
“Do you want any Martin?” Douglas asked.  
“No, thanks”  
“Okay, no dessert for us I’m afraid, just the check, please”  
“No coffee either?”  
“No I’m afraid we have to be at work very early tomorrow” Douglas answered the waitress’ enquiries until she left them to get the check. 

Martin fumbled for his wallet, but Douglas stopped him “No, Martin, my treat”  
“But you already brought the cake and the drinks”  
“So?” Douglas shrugged.  
“I can’t let you buy all my food”  
“How about we make an agreement then” Douglas started “I pay now. You pay another time. It will balance itself out.”  
Martin thought about it for a bit, agreeing just seconds before their waitress placed the check on the table.  
Douglas payed and left a generous tip, Martin hoped wasn’t in case their waitress had somehow seen anything they had done while eating.

______________

 

They made their way back to the hotel, once again letting go of each others hands at the subway station; Trying to walk back to the hotel like friends and not lovers.

As they opened the door to their room they found Arthur singing off-key to whatever he was listening to on his headphones, dancing with an over-sized plushy of a polar bear.  
It was thankfully not one of those life-sized ones, but still a lot bigger than most plushies.  
Douglas thought recognised the song as one that had been often played on the radio lately, but with Arthur’s singing he was never sure. 

“Arthur!” Martin moved into Arthur’s line of vision. Getting close enough he would get hit if Arthur’s dance moves got anymore enthusiastic.  
Arthur stopped dancing with a final twirl and bow, removing his headphones in a fluid practised movement as if he was often caught in situations like that. Which knowing Arthur he probably was.

“Hi Chaps!” he greeted, louder than normal. Which made Douglas think about how loud his music must have been. “Did you have a brilliant day?”  
“Yes, we did Arthur” Douglas said, moving over to his bed now that he was no longer in danger of a bloody nose.  
“Ooooh. Brilliant! Mum and I had a brilliant day too!” Arthur launching straight into the full story.  
Douglas put on his most encouraging face. As long as Arthur was telling a story he couldn’t question them about their own day.  
“We went straight to the zoo, and you were right the penguins didn’t talk, and their lion and zebra didn’t dance but they were all still very brilliant and then we went to see the polar bears and they had some kind of party there I think it was because of the baby polar bear and they had a lottery and mum let me buy one ticket and look what I won.” He held up the stuffed bear. 

That explained a lot, Carolyn would never have let him buy an overpriced toy like that otherwise. 

“And then Snowy, mum and me went to see the rest of the zoo and there were kangaroos. They are also very brilliant! They walk funny. They jump but also use their front paws sometimes.  
“And then we saw the gnus but mum said I was not allowed to press the button that said press here. And the meerkats were brilliant too. They are soooo cute when they stand up on their hind legs and look all around. And there was one penguin that had feathers sticking out all over and I asked mum if he was ill but she said it was just moulting, so like buying a new coat if your favourite gets all ripped up because you wear it so much.”

Douglas wondered if Arthur had somehow discovered a way for humans to not need to breath with the speed at which he was telling this story. 

“And when we finished the zoo mum wanted to walk around the park for a bit more so we did and Snowy and me had so much fun. But we weren’t allowed to go on the swings because mum wanted to go back here already. So we did but before we ate hot dogs. They were brilliant. The vendor was very nice and he even gave me extra sauce. And everything. It was hard to eat while holding snowy but see not a single stain!”  
Arthur finished his story falling back onto his bed still clutching the polar bear, that apparently was named Snowy.

____________________

 

“Oh that really sounds like a nice day” Martin said when he was sure Arthur was finished, wondering how Carolyn had fared keeping up with Arthur in the zoo.  
“It really was.” Arthur said “Oh. And mum said to tell you we have to be at the airport at 7 tomorrow and take off at 8.”  
“Really?” Douglas groaned, checking his phone for the time “That means leaving at 5 and so we have about 10 hours left”  
“Off to bed then” Martin said grabbing his things and walking into the bathroom.  
“Do we have to? Snowy and I aren’t the least bit tired”  
“You can stay awake as long as you don’t disturb us. Douglas and I need to sleep before flying tomorrow”  
“Okay” Arthur said stifling a yawn, apparently more worn out than he tried to let on.

_____________________

 

They all got ready for bed and Arthur was the first to fall asleep clutching his polar bear.  
Douglas and Martin had a harder time falling asleep. 

Douglas wanted to send a message to Martin before he fell asleep but he didn’t know what to write.  
He wanted to tell him he wanted to hug and kiss him, but thinking about it was already torture for himself and Martin didn’t need the extra teasing.  
Douglas hoped Martin was thinking similar things.

He fell asleep with the thoughts of Martin’s hugs and dominating kisses. The way he was more of a captain in private than aboard GERTI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I promised a bonus scene. Didn't I? here it is: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6956284


End file.
